


If You Can't Beat Them, Hire Them

by AceFace98



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Abandonment, Angus is too young for this shit, Angus's birth family is No Good(tm), Backstory, Character Study, Distant Family, Families of Choice, Family Feels, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Pretty much all headcanon stuff, Spoilers, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-18
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-25 07:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9808754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceFace98/pseuds/AceFace98
Summary: The moon's greatest detective is only eleven years old, but he's accomplished quite a lot in that time! Even before he made it to the moon! Things like, holding a steady militia job for nearly two years, befriending the oddest almost-a-cleric, and learning how to shoot a crossbow from a blind guy. Not counting the cases he has solved!Still, Angus McDonald prefers the life he's making for himself inside the Bureau. Something about everyone's warmth towards him is ... nice.This might've been the best job he's ever taken, in fact.





	1. The Second Time Angus Breaks His Nose

**Author's Note:**

> So writing is ... weird rn. Lots are going on in my life, so I kind of checked out this podcast everyone was talking about? And ... welp shit here we go, Ace has found a new fandom xD  
> As you can probably tell, Angus is my favorite character. Like, you can't just introduce a ten year old child as the "World's Greatest Detective" without me trying to find every scrap of detail on the dude's backstory.  
> So because of all that nonsense I started several shorts about Angus, using various headcanons I have for the kid. Again, though, writing's kind of weird rn so they're all probably going to be really short and sporadic.  
> These will jump around a lot, so this first one happens before the Eleventh Hour arc, on the moon ^^  
> I see why the fandom loves Dad!Taako, but here me out: Angus gets adopted by literally Everyone on the moonbase.

Angus didn't swear. He kind of wanted to, but he held it all back fairly admirably, with only a few hissing consonants and vowels escaping from between his clenched teeth.

“Yo!” the ever hyper, enthusiastic voice cheered. “Killer fall there kid, how you feeling?”

He wasn't going to cry. He wasn't going to cry. He _was not_...

Tears welled up anyways. When he brushed them away, blood came too. His nose hurt _really, really_ bad.

“C’mon kiddo, show us the damage.” Carey continued to joke. She hadn't seen his face yet, his back was to her. She had only seen him land.

“N-No I'm good!” Angus insisted. His hand found his nose and he tried to remember what to do when it was bleeding. It was starting to make a kind of mess, smearing down the front of his jacket and onto the training mat. A lot of it was pouring down his throat too, like an uncomfortable amount. The coppery taste made him nauseous, and he couldn’t help but gag on it.

“Angus?” Killian asked, sounding like she didn't believe him at all. “Come on, man, just give us the report.”

Angus closed his eyes, keeping his back to them.

 _Gentlemen don't make women worry_ . He reminded himself. That was stupid, and he knew it, but it was the thought that kept echoing through his head. Killian, Carey, and No3113 had _certainly_ seen worse than a bloody nose, but this had happened because he goofed doing jumps with them. They might feel bad, even if they knew it was his fault. He didn't want that! And he deeply, _deeply_ didn't want them to stop letting him practice with them. Which would probably happen if they thought he was incapable of learning how to keep from falling on his face!

“It's just, uh, a bruise!” he insisted, trying to wave a hand and look normal without turning around. “I'm just gonna ... go clean up. Yup, get the, uh, dirt off my face and...”

He hadn't heard Carey approach; he never did, actually, she was too good with the stealth stuff. She simply had a hand on his shoulder, gently turning him around.

“Daaaang dude!” she said at a low whistle. “That freaking _blows_ , kid. Might be broken.”

Angus whimpered a bit, his hand still lamely held over his nose. He wasn't stopping the flow at all, but he couldn’t seem to remember how to and it _hurt_ a lot and he was crying and it was just a mess.

“Tilt your head forward, OK?” Killian reminded him, kneeling next to him and her girlfriend. “Pinch your nose real tight OK? I think it's actually broken.”

No3113 hovered by then, gazing down with a lot of compassion for a robot. “Once the bleeding has stopped, I can set it, probably, but... Angus should probably go see a cleric.”

Angus followed Killian’s instructions, sitting on the floor sheepishly. He goofed real bad now. Now they wouldn't want him to do cool stuff with them.

“‘M sorry” he said, kinda quietly.

“Sorry?” Carey said, sounding...shocked? “Kid, do you know what we do when we take a nasty fall like that?”

Angus shook his head, earning a small stab of pain as he did so.

“We fix ourselves up and go, ‘welp, now I know what _not_ to do!’” Carey said much louder, and much cheerier than Angus was expecting. She was grinning madly at him. “Now you know where your balance was off, right?”

“‘No pain, no gain’!” Killian quoted, an equally wide grin on her face. She clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“S-so you'll still ... show me how to do flips and stuff?” Angus asked.

“Of course, doof!” Carey said, good naturedly. “Dude, taking a fall is nothing! I can't count the number of times I ended up right on my ass after doing one of these the first time! It happens.”

Angus breathed a sigh of relief. He felt so much ... lighter all of a sudden.

“I'm sorry I messed up, you guys _were_ teaching me real good I just...!” Angus didn't get to finish his thought.

“Kid no, seriously, _relax_.” Killian insisted. “It’s was no one's fault, it just happened. Now come on little man, let's go get you healed.”

Angus nodded, painfully, and stood up. He felt something fall off his shoulders - metaphorically speaking - at the thought that they didn't blame him _or_ themselves. It just happened.

_Mistakes just happen._

He knew those words. He knew how they applied to other people. But if there was one thing he _also_ knew, it was that mistakes would come at a cost.

_McDonald men are great. Great men can’t afford to make mistakes._

Detectives couldn’t afford to make mistakes either. Making a mistake in a case could be life threatening, even. So it stood to reason that if Angus wanted to prove himself as a great detective, then he _couldn’t_ make mistakes, at all ever.

He ... never realized how all encompassing that ideology had gotten. Maybe he was just being stupid, but even something as small as falling on his face made him feel like Grandfather was right. That this was all some kind childish game he was playing, the detective work. Something stupid and a complete waste of time.

Killian and No3113 took Angus down the hall to the local healer, Carey staying behind to clean off the training mat. A few other members of the Bureau were hanging around in the halls, many of whom got very concerned about the state Angus was in. Killian breezed by them all with quick explanations, and all of them seemed to have the same _heh heh, whoops you goofed!_ attitude the Regulators did.

Angus didn't really want to think about it anymore. He was relieved and happy that no one faulted him, and that he could bounce back from this like he had with the silverware set, but now the pain had settled into a constant dull roar that just _hurt_ . Now that he didn't have to worry about what the others thought of him, his mind was fully able to grasp how much this _sucked_.

Which was a lot. He hadn't really had a chance to grasp the idea that he has fully _broken_ his nose until now. But now that the thought was in his mind it wouldn't let up; playing over and over like a scratched record.

Which was kind of funny, considering the first time he had broken it that had been _all_ he had been able to focus on.

There were a couple of clerics on duty when Killian, No3113, and Angus finally made it to the Med Bay. Angus knew, from extensive study of several sets of blueprints, that the Med Bay was the same exact one as the once-standing (er...floating) Miller Labs. Likewise, he also knew where everything was stashed, not accounting for the organization habits of the clerics who worked here. He could have grabbed everything he needed himself, even if he couldn't set his nose himself, and that thought helped calm his anxiety somewhat.

He never liked it when people fussed over him. Especially when he was injured; it made him feel like he was incapable of taking care of himself.

Luckily, the clerics on duty treated the situation a lot like how the Regulators did. How the other Bureau members had. As nothing more than a simple mistake.

Well. Almost.

“You’ve broken this nose already, yes?” one cleric asked, holding it in place while they waited for the bleeding to stop.

Angus could feel Killian’s quizzical stare. “Yurs Ser” he said, best as he could.

“Poor healing job on it,” the cleric commented.

Angus just grinned. In defense of his healer, she hadn't had any proper training. Everything she had done then had been technique learned haphazardly from a couple of clerical books. It had been completely miraculous that it hadn’t been set wrong entirely.

Killian chuckled. “Man Angus, I didn't know you lived the dangerous life! And here I was feeling bad thinking that your first bone break was during training and not doing something cool!”

Angus laughed, actually caught off guard by the comment. The cleric rolled his eyes and finished off the spell with a small golden glow. He then took off his gloves and dismissed the two of them, telling Angus to drink a lot of water and not to mess with his nose for an hour or so.

“So wanna come back and do some more flips?” Killian offered, No3113’s screen on her standard friendly grin image.

“Yeah!” Angus cheered. Now without pain, and without the fear of them cutting him out, he was pumped to learn some more stuff. But then he looked down at himself. “Maybe I should change first. Probably gotta burn this jacket.”

Killian laughed heartedly. “Come back in something _other_ than a suit, eh kid? Something you can actually work out in.”

He wasn't entirely sure he _owned_ clothes like that, but he nodded smartly all the same. “You got it, Ms. Killian!”

The three parted ways then, Angus hurrying back to his room.

The moon offered him a chance to learn stuff he would’ve never gotten in the McDonald Library. When he was older, he would probably be a very capable adventure himself, which was very exciting to think about! And if he was learning all stuff his Grandfather would completely disapprove of?

Honestly it made him want to bust out laughing.  


	2. Getting Sick on the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Angus learns the Director's name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The best part about doing these in shorts is that I can jump around to whichever one I want. The worse part about doing these in shorts is that I can jump around to whichever one I want. I may have just finished three of these at once  
> This one is more fluff but the other two that are more head canon stuff. So ... mega update? All of them are super short tho, so baaaalance and stuff ^^  
> Notes for this one: Angus gets sick but it's cool cuz Moon Mom's got this.

“No.”

Angus blinked, his vision swimming a bit, up at the Director. “Ma’am?” He began to say, but she held out a hand in front of him.

“No.” She said again, very sternly. “Nuh-uh, nope. Turn right around.”

Angus just continued to blink at her. Maybe it was the headache, but he had no idea what she was talking about. His hand rested lightly on the books he had been planning to scour through for the day, his pen already ready in his other hand. Being a Seeker meant a lot of research, which Angus was very good at! He had already planned out his day in full; which books he was going to go through, what kind of notes he knew he would need to take, and what sort of conversations him and the Director might’ve had. 

And now she was just ... saying no?

“Ma’am?” He asked again. “I don’t understand.”

He sneezed at the end of his statement, quickly fetching up his handkerchief before he could make a mess of his jacket. The Director’s glare continued to cut down into him.

“Young man, I was not born yesterday.” She stated plainly. “You are sick.”

Angus made a noise of protest, but the Director just held out her hand again.

“No, it is the truth.” She said, giving him a well deserved look. “You are excused from today’s activities. Tomorrow’s as well. I  _ insist _ you go back to bed.”

Angus, for all the life of him, genuinely didn’t know what to say to that. Sure, he wasn’t feeling his best - his head hurt and his nose didn’t want to stop running - but he was still perfectly fine to work! In fact, he had worked an entire  _ case _ feeling like death had smacked him in the face before. Back  _ then _ he had fallen over several times because his balance had been so thrown. This was nothing in comparison: all he was doing here was research stuff! 

But he found it hard to voice any of that, because for some reason he hadn’t even expected the Director to ... well to  _ notice _ he was sick. Nevermind to care.

“Ma’am I’m feeling completely fi...” Angus started.

“If you say ‘fine’ I’ll have Davenport carry you back to your rooms and stand guard.” She threatened. “Working while you’re ill is the quickest way to make yourself  _ more  _ sick, you know, and I won’t have you spreading this around.”

Angus sneezed again, before he could retort. He had to clear his throat in order to say anything else, but he knew just by looking at the Director that this would be one battle he had no chance of winning. Instead, he just grinned slightly.

“Er, OK Madam Director.” Angus replied meekly. “I ... er, I’ll just go get some rest then.”

The Director stared him down while he put his stuff away. “You ...” She began after a moment or so. “You  _ do _ know how to take care of yourself while you’re sick, correct?”

Angus didn’t, not really. He didn’t get sick often, and back home getting sick meant seeing a cleric as soon as possible. When Angus didn’t feel up to getting prodded by a healer, he just pretended he was fine and worked through the pain. Presumably there was a natural, and much healthier, way to take care of oneself when they were sick, but all Angus really knew about that was that rest was involved.

“Er, drink ... fluids?” He offered. “Sleep some?”

The Director sighed almost dramatically. “Well you’re not wrong. Come on, child.”

She placed her own volume back down on the desk and ushered him out of the room. Angus couldn’t help but stare up at her, blinking as she guided him back down the halls towards his rooms.

He ... well frankly he was surprised she knew where they were. Which was silly, in hindsight, since she knew where  _ everything _ on the moon was. She ran it, after all. But the thought that she remembered where he, specifically, was staying was ... a novelty? 

The more he thought about it, the sillier he felt. She was just looking out for her co-workers as a whole; if he got someone else sick there could be an entire flu break out. Which would be completely not good! No, it made sense that she was guiding him back to his bed and all, there didn’t have to be any kind of special treatment involved. 

The Director waited for a couple of moments while Angus fished out his key. Since Angus was the youngest member of the Bureau, there had been quite a lot of fidgeting around to find him a room. He had to have his own room, first off, as he was a growing child, but he also didn’t really need anything huge. 

In the end, Angus’s rooms were not too far away from the Director’s own personal quarters, near some closed off sectors of the moon base. Which piqued Angus’s curiosity, of course, but he knew better than to investigate things that were so completely off limits. He believed the Director when she said that that stuff was too dangerous to poke around in. There was probably a lot of advanced magic and machinery keeping the Bureau floating, after all!

Once Angus unlocked his rooms, the Director opened the door and strolled in. Blinking, Angus watched in surprise as she casually walks over to his bedroom, opened it, then stepped over to his closet. By the time he realized she’s looking for pajamas, she’s already gone through several articles of clothing.

“I’m impressed by how neatly you keep your room, Angus.” The Director called back to him, pulling out the outfit and laying it out on the bed. Angus quickly walked over and scooped it up. 

“Thank you, Ma’am” He muttered, a bit unsure of why she was still standing in his rooms.

“I assume you keep tea in the kitchenette? I’ve heard you ask for a box of it before.”

Angus could honestly say that statement surprised the hell out of him. “Er, yes ma’am I did. That’s very ... observant of you, to remember that.”

The Director actually smiled at him. “Why don’t you go change, and I’ll start some tea for you.”

Angus just slowly nodded at her, then ducked into the bathroom.

He was ... kind of weirded out, to be perfectly honest. He hadn’t known the Director that long, but she didn’t seem like the kind of person to really ... do something like this? This went just a bit beyond normal “caring for her co-workers” kind of thing. 

He quickly changed, dumping his clothes into the hamper by the door. Normally, he takes a shower before bed, but the thought of doing that while the Director was still in his room just sounded rude. He blew his nose one last time before hurrying out of the bathroom.

He hadn’t heard the kettle, but the tea’s already done so the Director had to have used some kind of magic. She has it all set up in the main room, the first room to Angus’s suite. Half of it was the kitchenette, divided the middle by an island counter with stools, and then the other half was the small living area. Not that Angus spent much time here, the mess hall provided him with three meals a day, but it was still more than most of the dorms had.

It took him a moment to properly slide onto a stool.

“Are you hungry?” The Director asked, rifling through his cabinets. “You don’t keep much here, which isn’t surprising, but I could probably make something light.”

“Um ... no thanks Madam Director.” Angus muttered.

The Director turned and looked at him, smiling a bit. “Are you not hungry, or is me cooking weirding you out?”

Angus thought about it for a moment “Y-yes?”

She laughed, which surprised him more. “Drink your tea, and I’ll get outta your hair.”

Angus held them mug carefully, taking small sips. Since it was made using magic, though, it was already at perfect drinking temperature. 

The Director leaned on the counter, smiling at him. “You know, I used to want kids.” She explained, kind of out of the blue. “So if I ever ... mother on you, that’s probably where it’s coming from. You can tell me if it’s too uncomfortable for you.”

Angus swallowed. “Oh no, I don’t mind!” He insisted, even though his mind was reeling at the thought that she would treat him like that. “I just ... I was expecting it, I guess?”

The Director rubbed his hair, smiling at him. “You’re a good kid, you know?” She says, proudly. “I know we hired you because of your detective skills, but I’d like to think you would’ve grown up to be someone amazing anyways.”

Angus couldn’t help but blush at that. He didn’t really have a response either, so instead he just takes another sip of tea. Once he’s drained that, though, he’s still got nothing to say.

“Er, thank you, Madam Director.” He finally settles on.

“You know what? Call my Lucretia.” She gives him a small wink. “Just don’t tell anyone else.”

Angus is thoroughly thrown, but he smiles. “Yes ma’am!” His confidence is thrown a bit, though, since he sneezes right at the end of his statement.

The Dir- Lucretia laughs a bit. “Alright, finish that tea, then it’s off to bed for you. Don’t even  _ think _ about coming back to work until you’re feeling better.”

He smiles meekly and nods. He can’t help but feel like he might actually ... enjoy this. Getting mothered on, anyways. He also could probably come to enjoy resting as well.

Well, until he got bored, of course.


	3. The Cutest Rogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carey was not expecting this conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part TWO of the mega-update! If you didn't notice, I've updated THREE chapters at once ^^ go read them all lol!  
> Getting into headcanon - land. Angus has, like, absolutely no backstory. I cannot express how much I've overthought his story and stuff, thinking about how he became a detective and why he acts like silly pranks are the craziest thing ever invented (Magnus playing the "got your nose thing" got a really impressive reaction from a 10 year old, I mean)  
> So yeah, this is officially where Ace makes shit up. Hope it's cool tho ^^ :D

“You're ... really interested in what I do?” Carey asked, her eyebrow raised. “Like, kid really?”

Angus nodded eagerly. “A lot of very accomplished detectives start out as rogues!” He explained. “I'm not the best at sneaking around, and I know when I'm not a little kid anymore people will get suspicious of me hanging around!”

Carey snorted. “Alright, fair play. So you just want to know how to, like, sneak around and stuff?”

“Whatever you're willing to teach me!” Angus said, full of excitement.

Carey shook her head lovingly at the child, then reached over and ruffled his hair. It was starting to get long again. “Yeah, alright kiddo. You'll be the cutest dang rogue when I'm done with you.”

Angus couldn't help but giggle. He ... really like having his hair ruffled? That probably wasn't very professional, but he didn't really care. 

“Alright, well why don't we start with something more puzzle-like and move up from there, ya?” Carey fished out her thieves tools and a couple of locks. “Lock picking!”

“I already know how to do that, actually.” Angus said helpfully. “We can skip it.”

Carey gave him a ... weird look, but before Angus could really identify what it was she smiled again. “You may  _ think  _ you know, but I bet you can’t get one of these bad boys open in under 30 seconds!”

Looking at it, Angus couldn’t help but think  _ probably not, actually _ . He bounced in place a little, excited.

“No, ma’am!” Angus continued bouncing, deciding this'll still be fun. 

Carey gave him a sharp grin fully of teeth as the two of them sank down to the ground. She handed over the tools and the locks. 

“See, you're holding them wrong.” She pointed out, reaching over to help Angus adjust his grip. He fiddled with the tools for several moments, listening carefully to all of the rogue’s instructions. 

He was a quick study, and he got the hang of the hold well enough to unlock the locks quickly enough. After he got them open, though, Carey closed them all and had him continue to practice, till it all wore down into his muscle memory. 

“Where did you learn lock picking, anyways?” Carey asked as if she was making small talk. Angus caught the way her tail shifted when she spoke, though, and knew instantly that she was genuinely curious. 

“Um ...” Angus muttered, wondering how to word it  “From an old ... friend?”

“You don't sound too sure there.”

“Well, I  _ thought _ he was a friend at them time,” Angus explained. “His family was also rich, so we were put together to make friends on several occasions. He was a thief.”

Carey raised a brow. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Angus nodded, his fingers running over the lock face as he felt for the tumblers. “He ran a kind of gang, out of Neverwinter. He was really impressed by my observation skills. Like, I can spot easy marks pretty well, along with traps and guard patrols ...”

“Whoa wait,” Carey said, waving her hands. “Angus, you were in a  _ gang _ ?!”

Angus grinned at her. “I mean at the time we didn't call it that. We were all just friends who happened to rob people together.” 

“I literally can't picture you stealing from anyone.” Carey said plainly. 

Angus couldn't really see how she couldn't see it, especially when he just said he  _ had _ . “Well, to be fair I didn't do ... er, field work much. I was more like ... a coordinator.”

Carey just stared at him for a minute or two, looking so genuinely baffled Angus was just a little bit worried. “OK, so like ...” She finally said. “What made you quit that? When did you turn a new leaf?”

Angus frowned, opening the lock in his hands with a subtle  _ click _ . Absentmindedly, he locked all of them again and readjusted his grip on the pick. 

“So ...” Angus began slowly. “It sounds kind of sad, but, uh, Ruff was actually my only friend? At the time I mean.”

“Ruff being the kid who ran the gang?” Carey asked.

Angus nodded. “His name was James, but he went by Ruffian, so we all called him Ruff.”

Carey blinked in thought for a moment. “You said this was in Neverwinter? Like, three or four years ago? Didn’t someone clean out his stash, return a lot of it, and then turned him in?”

Angus grinned at her.

“Oh  _ sick _ !” She said, looking actually ... proud of him? “I heard about that! I thought that whole thing was nuts!”

Angus chuckled a bit. “Yeeeah. So, I was kind of against the stealing thing, but Ruff was really my only friend at the time. Plus, his family was close with mine, right? It’d look super bad on all of us if he got arrested.” Angus opened the lock in his hands, then switched to a new one. “But Ruff wasn’t stealing for money, he was already rich, so stealing stuff back from him was easy. It was just a little harder getting them back to where they needed to be, and he ... he caught me at it eventually. That’s when I turned him in.”

Carey made a hiss of sympathetic pain. “Is that how you broke your nose the first time?”

“What?” Angus asked, a little bit surprised Carey knew about that. “Oh. No, I did that doing something else.”

She nodded, leaning back a bit. “So, did  _ you _ get in any trouble with the court?”

Angus’s grin widened. “I had community service. I got to hang out with a grouchy retired officer and learned how to shoot a crossbow.”

Carey busted out laughing. “You know? That doesn’t surprise me in the least.”

The two of them chuckled about it for a couple of moments, Angus finally getting the hang of this new way of holding the pick in his hands. After he finished up another round of locks, Carey finally packed everything up.

“Let’s do some more physical stuff.” She said, hopping up to her feet. “You want to be able to sneak around good, yea? With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to move like a  _ shadow _ .”

Angus grinned and jumped up too, hoping in place a little.

_ A good detective is never seen, never heard _ . He could remember Berk teaching him.  _ You’re lucky, no one pays attention to kids. But you wont be a kid forever. _

“That’d be  _ great _ , Miss. Carey!” Angus exclaimed. 


	4. I Want to Learn How to Shoot, Sir.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus and Ruff broke into the wrong (right?) house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part THREE of my mega- update XDD phew. Last chapter I promise!  
> Anyways, this is all flashback and headcanon land now ^^ I have an entire backstory planned out for Angus in my head, so let me know what y'all think :D  
> EDIT: GUUUYS IVE LEARNED HOW TO DO A THING!! :DD If you hover over any of the German text from here on out, it'll have a translation appear as the ALT text :D Does NOT work on mobile, much sorry :/

Angus McDonald was seven or eight years old - his knees and hands badly scraped and his clothes torn - when he first met Officer Berk. 

Not that he had known who the man was at the time. He had kind of - accidently! - broke into Berk’s house and nearly got shot by a crossbow bolt. When Berk had seen he had been aiming at a kid, and once Ruff booked it out of the house, he had gently placed the crossbow down and had talked Angus out of hiding. He had even bandaged Angus up himself, giving him this huge long rant about how thievery was wrong and how Angus could’ve probably just gone and talked to a kind cleric somewhere.

He also grilled Angus relentlessly on Ruff, since he seemed to think that Ruff was probably a bad influence. Angus hadn’t sold Ruff out while Berk was patching him up, so Berk had kind of sighed and insisted that Angus come back the following day so they could have a proper talk.

Well, more like a proper blackmail. When Angus came back, Berk handed him some tools and told him to fix the lock on the door, otherwise he’d arrest him. But they talked about other stuff too! Once Angus realized that Berk was in the militia, he kinda ... forgot to be intimidated by him.

“You’re really good with that crossbow, sir!” Angus had said, straightening the new lock into place and carefully lining up the screw.

Berk gave him an non answer hum. Angus was not off put in the least.

“I’m serious! That was a very good shot! Ruff’s always telling me that archery is really hard.”

“I’m sure there’s a lot that Ruff tells you.” Berk replied. “Kid’s a one-man crime spree.”

Angus smiled back at Berk. “I know, sir.”

“Funny how, lately, a lot of people who get robbed by him have their stuff returned though.”

“Really funny, isn’t it sir?”

Berk sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Kid, if you really want to help those people, just turn him in.”

Angus’s smile slipped into a frown. He didn’t know how to say that Ruff was the only real friend he had. 

He knew Officer Berk was right, though. That was, actually, kind of the problem. And it wasn’t like Ruff stole things because he needed the money, or anything like that. He just ... hoarded it! It was so stupidly easy to steal things back from Ruff, entirely because once Ruff  _ had _ something he couldn’t care less about it. 

“Kid, no, you’re gonna put that on backwards if you don’t turn it around.” Berk said after a moment, interrupting Angus’s thoughts. Angus grinned sheepishly and took the lock off the screw, turning it right.

After Angus finished the lock, Berk gave him a glass of lemonade and tried to get him to spill his secret once again. Angus thanked him for the drink, said nothing, then went home.

Three days later, Ruff caught him stealing from the stash. Three of Ruff’s “friends” - gang members, more like - all pounced on Angus. They got in a lot of really, really good hits. They opened a few old wounds too, and gave him two killer black eyes. Luckily for him, Ruff couldn’t actually stomach the sight of blood. The fight had happened out in the back alley, and someone had heard the commotion.

By the time some patrol officer showed up, Ruff’s friends had fled. Angus had managed to hide himself in a tiny corner of a fire escape above the alley, barely avoiding getting into trouble himself.

He was much, much worse off than he had been the first time he went to Officer Berks’ house. He also knocked this time, deciding that he couldn’t kick the door free of the lock like Ruff could even if he  _ could _ see it. Plus, that’d probably be a bad second impression.

Luckily for Angus, Berk was home. Also lucky was the fact that 1.) Berk believed Angus when he said where Ruff was, and 2.) Berk had the kind of pull in the militia that allowed him to act quickly. He was also incredibly lucky that one of Berk’s co-workers was a very accomplished cleric, but that thought had a tendency to fall by the wayside when he thought about how he turned in one of his old friends.

Well, more like a fake friend. All Ruff really wanted was Angus’s skill at seeing traps and easy marks, and maybe even get him in trouble with Grandfather when Angus eventually stopped wanting to play thief. But Angus hadn’t really been able to ...  _ see _ that back then. Back then he had been reeling for days that Ruff would do something like this to him, that he have the other kids beat him up. 

Mostly, though, he had been upset that he hadn’t been able to put up a really good fight himself. It seriously kept him awake at night, had him tossing and turning.

He was a coordinator. A planner, a thinker. Ruff had always said it’d be silly for him to try to learn fighting, back when Angus was thinking about getting into fencing. What Angus  _ should _ focus on, Ruff had insisted, was getting smart enough that all his planning kept him from getting into fights at all. 

But maybe Ruff just wanted to keep him dependant on him, or something like that. The point was, when everything else had failed and three guys had come at Angus, he hadn’t been able to  _ do _ anything.

Now that Ruff was gone, Angus was completely on his own. There was no one who would help keep him out of fights, no one to fight  _ for _ him. And it had already been proven to him once that he wasn’t going to be able to completely  _ avoid _ trouble. He was like a magnet for it.

So, there was only one solution. He needed to learn how to defend himself. 

But he had no idea where to start  _ learning _ that.

Well, until he happened to look around a bit more.

The Captain of the militia in Neverwinter wasn’t a complete hardass, but he had decided that even Angus needed a lesson. Nothing major, he was just ordered to tail Berk around a do a few hours of community service. 

Berk, as it turned out, wasn’t actually  _ actively  _ with the militia, despite what he had implied to Angus and Ruff. He had been retired due to reasons he didn’t seem interested in talking about, but him and the Captain played poker during the weekends and apparently Berk still held a lot of sway with the militia men in general. 

So saddling him with Angus seemed like a pretty good idea. Berk really went to town on the whole “making you regret your actions” thing. It wasn’t just the lock; Angus fixed basically  _ everything _ in the house, with Berk constantly standing over his shoulder. 

But, one day, Angus showed up and Berk seemed a little bit at a loss on what Angus could do. He looked around just long enough for Angus to spot his chance.

“Sir?” Angus offered, catching Berk off guard. “Um ... can I ask you something?”

“Yeah? What’s up kid?”

“I ...” Angus swallowed. “I want to learn how to shoot, sir. Like you do, with the crossbow.”

Berk actually seemed taken aback by that, standing up a bit straighter. He raised his eyebrow as he stared down the young kid before him.

“You want to learn how to fire a crossbow?” Berk asked, as if he was surprised.

“Yessir.” Angus said, confidently. 

Berk stood there for a couple of minutes, then sighed and shrugged. “You know what, kid? After seeing you like this, I get why you think you need some weapons training. Annnd, well your community service hours are almost up, so ... eh, find, why not? Starting tomorrow, we’ll do crossbow training.”

Before Angus could get too excited, Berk gave him a serious look. “But for  _ today _ , you’re gonna need to clean out the yard.”

“Yes sir!” Angus said, too happy to get annoyed. He all but rushed out the door, feeling too eager to work than he probably should’ve been.

The next day, he should up to his first crossbow lesson full of hope.

It had probably all been pretty standard, the crossbow lessons. Berk revealed a smaller crossbow, something meant to be one handed for someone of his size but big enough to be two handed for Angus.

The kick hurt. A lot. Each shot just made Angus more and more sore, the pain building in intensity. As the lesson went on, Angus’s shot went more and more wide.

“I know it hurts, kid.” Berk said sympathetically. “Unfortunately, you can only work through the pain. Eventually, you build up the strength.”

Angus bit down on his bottom lip during talks like that, nodding furiously. Determinedly. He was  _ going _ to get this.

A couple of days into the lessons, Angus came home more sore than he felt he had ever been. He was also frustrated.

Maybe the problem was the crossbow? Berk had mentioned something about Angus getting one more meant for him, to see if the weight difference helped his shot. Angus was completely for it; Berk’s one-hand crossbow was heavy as a sack of bricks. 

Once he decided he needed the new crossbow, he knew  _ exactly _ who to talk to.

The McDonald Manors had a lot of ... odd characters working in them. Angus loved all of the servants who worked for his Grandfather in Neverwinter, but for this plan he would need someone back in Rockport.

Alma Woodcutter, the family maintenance worker. She maintained all of the inventions that made the manors run smoothly. She was easily the best inventor Angus knew. Any request he asked, she’d be able to fill. A simple crossbow would be easy.

So he quickly wrote a letter and sent it.

Five or so lessons later, he got a near furious knock on the servant’s quarter’s doors, and in walked Alma like someone had lit a fire under her.

“ _ Mausbär! _ ” She called out, using one of her many Dwarvish pet name for him. She herself was a Gnome, fluent in a seemingly endless number of languages. She was a little shorter than Angus himself, but she had a fire in her that made her seem larger than life. “ _ Schatz, _ Angus. I came as  _ soon _ as I got your letter.”

Angus was ... more than a little surprised. He was about to ask her why when she started yanking his sleeve up, exposing his forearm.

“ _ Gut, Schatz. _ ” She said, when he held still for her. “Crossbow, though, really Angus? What happened to fencing? Fencing would’ve been good for exercise. Crossbow is a kind of weapons you use when you want to keep the fighting away from you.”

She gave him a knowing look.

“Um ...” Angus began. “I just ... maybe Grandfather’s paranoia is rubbing off on me?”

“Hmm.” She leveled her eyes at him. “ _ Du bist ein schlechter Lügner _ ”

Angus sighed. “ _ Ja. _ ” He wasn’t as good at speaking Dwarvish as he was understanding it, so he just switched back to Common. “I got into a fight.”

Alma gasped, but he continued.

“There were ... roughly three boys ganging up on me.” He explained. “I don't know, it just made me realize I need to know how to defend myself.”

“But you still need to look presentable for your _ Großvater _ ?” Alma said, with a knowing look, a grin inching her way across her face. 

“Yeah.” Angus said. “I figured a crossbow I don't have to worry about hiding a huge quiver, and it's not super big either.”

Alma continued to give him a wicked smile, now fully formed. She had an idea, he could tell. “Don't you worry none,  _ Mausbär.  _ I have  _ just  _ the idea! This is going to be easily the best hidden weapon I've designed yet!”

It completely, 100%, was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright look, my guy, if the McElroys get to make the "Oh your speaking Elvish" joke everytime someone says something in Spanish, then CLEARLY Dwarvish is German. And NO it's not because German is the only other language I speak, fite me (speaking of, if any native German people see me make Mistakes in my grammar do not hesitate to correct me I am very slow at this)


	5. The Second Stone of Farspeech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus gets a call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo that new episode huh? I made a really stupid noise when Angus said that the moonbase was his home ;_;  
> This is still a thing I'm working on, btw! With everything popping off, though, it's been a bit hard to focus on my boy Ango McDango ^^ Still going though :33

Angus McDonald had two Stones of Farspeech. He had gotten one when he had become a Seeker, specifically one linked to the three Reclaimers’. He was their first line of contact, the first person on the moon they could reach if they ever needed to. Signing up for this job meant a lot of his work involved talking to the little stone, giving advice and coordinating people.

The other Stone of Farspeech he had had much longer. Long enough, in fact, that he had almost forgotten he had it.

He was in the Director’s office when it lit up, trying to paw through a rather extensive volume. The Director herself had stepped out to gather a couple of other supplies or to run some kind of errand. They needed to learn everything that they could about the Temporal Chalice before they could send Merle, Taako, and Magnus to the bubble they’d discovered, but at the same time there was also Boyland’s rites to plan for. 

Point was, a lot was going on when Angus felt the subtle  _ tug _ that signalled someone was trying to reach him. Enough that he hadn’t really thought much when he pulled the stone from his pocket and ran a hand over the sigil. 

He hadn’t even noticed that the Stone he used for work was laying on the desk before him, and that this was probably something he  _ shouldn’t _ answer. He just did, mumbling a fairly tired “Hello?” into the rock.

“Angus?” Someone familiar responded, and all of his focus snapped to attention.

_ Oh ... whoops _ .

For half a moment, Angus wondered if he could just ... hang up. Pretend this call hadn’t happened. Maybe finally throw the Stone off the moon? That seemed absurdly rude, though. And, besides, this conversation was really inevitable. He might as well just get it over with.

And hey, once this mess was over with, the dull work of looking into books would probably be a welcome reprieve.

So Angus sat back in his chair, trying to remind himself that no one could see how red his face was getting, and struggled to keep his voice even.

“H-hello Chase.” He said, half-heartedly.

“Angus, that  _ is _ you, right?” The voice on the other end said. “Your voice sounds weird.”

Angus resisted the urge to say something like  _ well, that’s probably because I’m on the moon so the connection is not going to be really great _ and instead said something worse. 

He said “Well, that’s probably because we haven’t spoken in, like, a year.”

He kind of wanted to curl up into a ball and maybe never say anything again ever.

To his surprise, Chase just snorted. Like Angus had just told a silly joke, rather than a fairly damnable insult. Angus couldn’t help but breathe a small sigh of relief, even as the logical side of his mind reminded him that Chase couldn’t even  _ do _ anything to him. He was on the  _ moon _ . 

“Fair point, little brother.” Chase said. Angus managed a small grin. “Though, I didn’t actually call to catch up.”

Angus had figured. He didn’t need to be the world’s greatest detective to know what this was about, but he decided to keep to formalities and ask anyways.

“Is this about the house?” Angus offered, curling one leg up under himself so he was sitting on it. This conversation was going to be long and tiring; might as well get comfy now.

“I really only have one question for you on that.” Chase’s voice responded, giving Angus a non-answer. Not that Angus really needed the confirmation, he already knew he was right. “How did you get your name on the deed?”

He couldn’t help it, Angus felt a small touch of pride at the memory. And at the fact that Chase was baffled. “Easily? It  _ was _ my house.”

“It wasn’t suppose to be in your name until you were an adult.”

“Technically the law states that having your own source of income qualifies you as a legal adult.” Angus explained. “I was with the militia for two years.”

Chase groaned, really loudly. “So the judge ruled that all those stupid kid games were enough to let you  _ sell _ the McDonald manor in Rockport? Really? You really think I’m going to believe that?”

Angus frowned. He had ... forgotten how much Chase always seemed to believe he was was making things up. Angus was a good child! He never made up stories like that! 

“Yes, because it’s the truth.” Angus responded. Chase groaned again.

“Look, brother, however you did it? We all just want to know what you did with the items  _ inside _ the manor.” Chase stated plainly.

“The furniture was sold with the house.” Angus explained. He settled into his business tone, recalling the details from a year or so ago. He wasn’t really surprised it had taken the rest of his family this long to notice the house was gone, to be honest, but it meant dragging up the particulars took a little bit of effort. “Everything that was in the safes or in the storage rooms went to the Rockport Trust. I can deliver you the keys to the safe deposit boxes, and give you the account info.”

Chase sighed, really dramatically even. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He wanted a real reason to yell at Angus, but the point was the Rockport Manor had always been  _ Angus’s. _ Until he had moved back into that house, no one had lived there after Angus’s parents had died. There had been talk of selling it for years. 

“So when you came out to visit us, in Neverwinter?” Chase asked. 

“No, I sold the house after that.” Angus explained. 

“When?”

“About ... a month after that?”

The next question was obvious, and one Angus had thought long and hard on how to answer. He clenched his fist around the Stone a little bit harder, bracing himself for the next part of the conversation. The real reason he had been avoiding this call.

“Angus...” Chase began. “Where are you living  _ now _ ?”

Angus smiled a bit, bolstering up his confidence.  

_ Running a con and running an investigation are very similar _ , he could remember Officer Berk saying,  _ just act like you already know everything, and the mark will supply everything else. You can make people believe anything you want, just by sounding  _ sure _ about it. _

“I have a new position.” Angus explained, without hesitation. “They offer living space here. Dorms, if you will.”

“Dorms?” Chase asked. “Ang ... what  _ kind _ of job?”

“Detective work.” Angus said plainly, knowing his older brother wouldn’t believe him. “I work for an ... organization. Mostly research work.” He decided last minute not to say a “bureau,” considering he would have no way of knowing if just sounded like static to his brother.

“Angus,” Chase said with a sigh. “Where ... where  _ are  _ you?”

“North,” Angus lied, on the spot. “It’s out of the way, up north of Neverwinter.”

“I don’t think I like the idea of you ...  _ living _ out there like this!” Chase continued on.

Angus just blinked, actually thrown off for a second. This ... was not something he expected to have to have an answer to.

“Chase?” Angus stated plainly, sticking to the truth “I’ve been living here nearly a year. I ... I spent  _ Candlenights _ here.”

It was so ... outright strange to think that his brother had a problem with this  _ now _ . That only  _ now _ was he even bothering to check in and see if Angus was doing OK. Not to say it was ...  _ completely _ surprising, because frankly it wasn’t, but it still felt so ... wrong. 

Chase sighed. “I’ll be speaking with Grandfather about this. He might want to put you back in school, you know. You can’t just leave home like this.”

Angus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He loved his brother, he really did! But the two of them were ten years apart, and Angus had been raised by his Grandfather and a flurry of nannies while Chase stayed home with their mother. The two might as well have been strangers, not that that had ever stopped Chase from trying to order Angus around. 

To be fair, though, Chase  _ was _ the head of the household, after their mother’s death. Maybe he was just jealous that Angus got to do whatever he wanted to. 

“Well just make sure to let me know when he wants to see me a bit in advanced.” Angus said. “It, er, takes a bit of time to get back to Neverwinter, you know?”

Step two of lying was keeping one’s story straight, after all.

“Fine.” Chase says bitterly. “Before you head out, maybe I should speak with this  _ new boss _ of yours. At least the captain of the militia is a good friend of Grandfather’s.”

Angus was about to come up with some kind of excuse for why Chase couldn’t talk to the Director, when there was a small throat clearing noise behind him.

“Why not now?” The Director asked, sounding completely stoic. 

To say Angus jumped would be an understatement. The Stone almost went flying, and his glasses got knocked askew. He was staring at her like she had grown a new head, thinking that he was  _ really _ in for it now.

The Director didn’t look off put at all. She held her head high and strode right over to the other chair in front of her desk, perching on the end so the Stone could pick up them both. 

“Afternoon,” She said to the Stone calmly, giving Angus a look he couldn’t read. “I’m Mr. McDonald’s supervisor here, you wish to speak to me?”

“Uh...” Chase, for once, seemed lost. “Er, hello madam?”

“Hello.” She said, sounding a bit pretentious. If Angus didn’t know the Director as well as he did, he might’ve even thought she wasn’t acting. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“Oh, apologies.” Chase said quickly. McDonald men knew their manners, after all. “I’m Chase McDonald, head of the house. You see, I’m Angus’s older brother. You can imagine I’m concerned for him, especially since he has no permission to be out with your ... group.”

The Director raised an eyebrow at Angus, clearly surprised. The surprise didn’t register in her voice, however. “According to the city of Rockport, your brother is a legal adult. There was no issue in hiring him.”

Angus had to admire her quick thinking, especially since nothing she said was even real lies. He legally  _ was _ an adult in Rockport, and had she had to go through their city hall she wouldn’t have had a real issue in hiring him. He had to explain the process thoroughly to every client that hired him, in fact. 

Thing was, they were on the  _ moon _ . Legality didn’t exactly apply in general. 

For a moment, there was baffled silence as Chase realized Angus hadn’t been lying about his work with the militia. Lucretia took the opportunity to press the point in. 

“Your brother is also a very fantastic worker here.” She continued. “You should be proud, his work ethic is very strong and he’s helped out around here considerably. Though I’m not surprised, he was very highly recommended to me.”

She gave him a wink then, casually breaking her steely facade. Angus blushed,  _ really _ hard. 

“I ... appreciate the comment, ma’am.” Chase said, his voice measured. “Angus, I’ll have Grandfather call you later. And we still expect a visit sometime.”

“Of course.” Angus responded, trying to keep his voice as even as Lucretia could. 

“But ... I, I shall let you get back to it.” Chase finished, sounding unsure of himself. “Farewell, Angus.”

“Bye Chase.”

The tugging feeling came back, then Angus’s Stone darkened. Lucretia sat back in her chair, raising an eyebrow questioningly at the detective.

“You have a brother.” She said.

“I do.” Angus responded. He sighed a bit. “Chase and I ... aren’t close. I lived with our grandfather, and he lived with our mother.”

“I see.” She said. She, thankfully, didn’t ask him why they had grown up separated. “Your mother passed away?”

Angus nodded.

“I’m sorry.” She looked honestly saddened, sad for  _ him _ . 

“Oh no, it’s no big deal!” He said quickly. “I didn’t know her well, and it was a few years ago.”

When his Grandfather died, that’d be a different story. As strict as the man was towards Angus, he was his only guardian.

“Still, it couldn’t have been nice.” Lucretia continued. “Is your Grandfather and brother your only family?”

Angus shrugged. “Well Grandfather’s brothers have families, but I don’t really interact with them much. Chase runs all the family finances and such.” 

Lucretia made a face. “You know ... you get time off working here, right? You can go down and visit them whenever.”

“Oh no I’m perfectly happy here!” Angus insisted, maybe a little too quickly by the look she gave him at  _ that _ notion. “Besides, we’re going to need to know more about the Chalice, right? I mean, the Reclaimers are going to have to get through that bubble somehow and all ...”

He trailed off as, surprisingly, the Director put an arm around him and hugged him. 

“Angus, it's OK.” She said softly. “My family wasn't that supportive either.”

Angus didn't know what to do with that. He just... gingerly held her back, hugging her as casually as he could. Trying not to think too strongly about how much he appreciated her in that moment. Trying not to imagine what life would’ve been like if she hadn’t given him this position.

Well, if he was being honest, this home. He found a home here, and he owed that to Lucretia. 

He hugged her just a little bit tighter. 


	6. Shopping Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus needs new clothes, so he asks Carey and Killian to take him planetside. Problem was Carey apparently knew more about him than he realized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #NotDead.  
> I wish I could say that this took so long to update because I was working on something cool and amazing, but ... wellllll XD  
> The finale's got me stoked tho!   
> Sorry about the long wait on the update, and sorry it's such a short one! Haven't forgotten about my favorite boy detective, though, and I still have a few more shorts planned out before I do a different fic with Ango. Hopefully I'll actually keep myself to a good schedule ^^;;;  
> Thanks for reading! :D

Carey flung the skirt over her head dramatically. “Stop saying  _ cute shit _ I’m trying to look at clothes!”

Killian giggled, a sight which had originally been very surreal to Angus that had since turned more normal. “Mmm, no.”

Angus rolled his eyes as he listened to the couple. He had a few new shirts tucked over one arm - neatly, unlike the pile Carey was constantly juggling - that he was considering trying on, and was currently halfway through the boy's pants section. Angus had always been the kind of person to dress for the job; if people were going to take him seriously, he had to look professional. But now he was much more aware of how much he needed practical clothes; specifically things to wear around the base when he - inevitably, it seemed - ended up solving mysteries from an air duct, or got sucked into learning stuff from the Regulators, or got stuff spilled over him as some kind of joke. Those kinds of clothes also seemed to be very important.

Carey and Killian had brought Angus down to Neverwinter with them when he mentioned needing the shopping trip. They said a lot of cheesy things as well - stuff about how fast he was growing - but they agreed readily enough in the end. 

Angus picked out a new pair of sweatpants, not bothering to check the price tag. Like everyone else at the Bureau, Angus earned a paycheck. However he didn't have to support a family, or even support himself when the Bureau provided everything but pleasantries, so he didn't have to worry about going over budget. 

“Oh hey!” Carey cheered, unearthing a skirt buried in the rack she had been looking through. It was a fairly fashionable, free moving blue skirt with a few sparkling stones sewn in decorative patterns around the hem. “How cute!?”

Killian chuckled. “Blue on blue?” She asked, referring to Carey's scales. 

Carey made a face. “You're right, it'd blend in too well. You try it on!”

“Does it  _ really  _ look like that itty bitty thing will fit me?”

“Fair point, fair point.” Carey thought about it for a moment, then gasped. “Angus! You try it on!”

Angus nearly dropped everything he was holding. 

Was it obvious? He... He had meant to get a haircut a little sooner so maybe ... Or maybe his face shape didn't have enough baby fat anymore? Or ... Or...

“Sk-skirts are for girls.” He sputtered out, so flustered he left off the “ma’am” and didn't even notice it. “I-I’m a boy.”

He wasn’t old enough to fake a deep voice, so he never worried about it, but maybe that had been a give away? Maybe he had told a story with the wrong pronouns? Maybe ... 

Carey just gave him a smirk, not noticing how off put he suddenly was.

“Nah man, skirts are just clothes.” She pointed out. “Taako wears the most flamboyant things ever, and you don’t see anyone questioning  _ him _ on his gender.”

“Yeah, little man.” Killian said, looking a little suspicious of him. “Honestly I’m surprised Taako hasn’t tried to get you into a skirt yet.”

Angus was blushing so bad, but relief was flooding through him as well. 

_ They don’t know they don’t know they don’t know... _

“If it’s all the same to you, ma’am, I think I’m fine with my boy clothes.” He said, trying to keep his breathing under control. 

Carey shrugged, but Killian was on to him now.

“Do you not like skirts, then?” She asked.

Angus didn’t want to answer, because he was afraid he’d tell the truth. So he just shrugged and focused on the rack before him.

“It’s cool if you don’t.” Killian continued. “I’m just surprised. You always seem so open to trying new things.”

Angus frowned at the pair of khakis in his hand. He wasn’t against the idea of trying new things! He really wasn’t! But it ...

_ It had always been such an uphill battle. If he messed up  _ once _ ... _

“I don’t like girl clothes is all.” He answered honestly.

“Is it ‘cause you’re trans?” Carey asked, out of the blue.

This time, Angus  _ did _ drop everything.

He was blushing so bad his ears wiggled, causing his glasses to slide down his nose. He quickly hid his face by dropping down to pick up his clothes, though he was sure he was so red they could see it from space.

“Oh, geez my bad.” Carey said, apologetically. “I shouldn’t go announcing things to the world without asking about them first.”

“Angus, you’re trans?” Killian asked, stooping down to help him gather up his fallen stuff.

_ Nope nope nope _ , Angus’s brain was on a loop, shutting down as his biggest fear became realized.

“I-I ...” He was stuttering, stuttering  _ bad _ . No chance of a believable lie now.

Which only left the truth. He slowly nodded. 

“Ho...how did you find out?” Angus asked.

Carey shrugged. “Last training session, when I was showing you that lift. You’re started to grow a bit, but since you’ve always been ‘Mr. McDonald’ it was pretty easy to figure out.” She smiled apologetically. “I should’ve talked to you about it still, that’s my bad.”

Angus wanted to cry. 

“Hey, hey it’s OK.” Killian said, putting an arm around his shoulder. “You’re OK. We won’t tell anyone if you don’t want us to.”

He swallowed and abandoned the clothes on the ground, realizing he had been trying to pick up the same shirt five times now. He knelt back instead, sitting on his knees, while Killian gathered everything for him.

“Why don’t I go check these out for you?” Carey said, still giving that meek smile. “They look like your size.”

Angus doesn’t have the energy to tell her he wanted to try them on first. Instead he let’s Killian pull him to his feet and out of the shop, where it’s a little more open.

Only when they’re sitting on the bench outside does he finally feel the tears start rolling.

“Oh, hun.” Killian says softly, hugging him to her side. “It’s not so bad. I didn’t know this was such a huge thing for you.”

She didn’t say it condescendingly, she just said it in a factual way. Like it was normal for it to be a big deal.

Angus sighed, hard, trying to keep the tears from flowing. He felt like an idiot. “N-normally people don’t hire trans detectives, ma’am.” He says.

There’s more to it than that. It was more like how his Grandfather had refused to talk to him for three weeks straight when he told him. Like how Ruff had always called him  _ Miss. McDonald _ , no matter how much Angus wished he wouldn’t. Like how his brother had always been  _ so mean _ , and then picked up the new pronouns with ease and confused Angus to hell.

How his first case with his friend Grazia had to involve an all girl’s school. 

He just wanted to scream at everyone, all the time.  _ I’m a boy! Boy boy boy! _

On the moon, no one had known. No one gave him weird looks, or had to correct themselves with that half smile of  _ just humor the little kid _ . He might get made fun of for his formal clothes, but it was always because he looked like an old  _ man _ . No one bitterly muttered question about where they went wrong raising him when he was around. 

“Well that’s their loss then.” Killian insisted, leaning back with a small scoff. “They don’t know what they’re missing.”

She said it so casually, like it was completely true, that Angus wanted to curl up in his sweater vest and maybe never come out again. He muttered something almost like a thank you, and Killian threw an arm over him and pulled him close to her side.

He had known, from nearly the beginning, that coming out was an option. That people were more likely to accept him on the moon than his family had been. Brad’s office of motivational posters and pamphlets had made it clear, but also the fact that the cook and several guards were also trans. Everyone on the moon was so open and honest about things that it had come as a welcome change. 

It was too open though. It often made him feel like he was lying.

Which he knew was incorrect! It was his decision to come out or not. He just ... hadn’t imagined someone would just ...  _ find _ out.

Find out and act like it was the most normal thing in the world to boot. 

“I just ...” Angus said, clearing his throat. “I’m surprised? I expected it to be ... a bigger deal?”

“We could throw a party if you want.” Killian offered.

“Bigger deal in a ... not good way, ma’am.” 

Killian gave him a sad frown, but before she could say anything Carey came out of the shop.

“Sorry that took so long!” She said with a grin. “I snagged you a few extra pants and shorts, Angus. You hadn’t gotten a lot yet.”

Angus blinked as she handed him the bag. “Oh, thank you Miss. Carey.”

“Don’t thank me kid, it’s my bad for just casually outting you without your permission.” She said with a small, still apologetic smile. 

“No, no, it’s OK.” Angus insisted. “It just ... surprised me is all.”

Carey smile and puffed up a bit more. “Well! Now that the cat’s out of the bag we can go talk to some of the cleric offices in town? Body surgeries are getting better and cheaper every day! We could snag you a pamphlet or two if you want, I’m sure the Director would even let you use your medical coverage for the surgery!”

Angus blushed wildly. “I’m way too small for that kind of thing, ma’am.” He could only really whisper.

“Oh I know that!” She insisted, waving a hand. “I mean more, like, a for the future thing! Know your options! Maybe think about getting an illusion charm when you start going through puberty?”

Angus blushed harder. “I- I haven’t thought that far ahead yet, ma’am.”

Carey nodded smartly. “Fair enough!” She smiled. “One of my sisters is trans, and she got a lot of crap for it back home. But! It did help me learn a lot about transitioning stuff, so if you ever need to talk about it with anyone, you only have to ask.”

She gave him two thumbs up, all grin. She was always so enthused about everything, and Angus had to smile at her ability to keep her tone light. She just wanted to help, and while he refused to think about it, he would eventually need that kind of help if he wanted to keep passing. 

“Th-thank you.” He managed. “I’ll keep that in mind, Miss. Carey.”

She and Killian both smiled at him.

“How about ice cream?” Killian decided, standing up. It seemed like they were always getting ice cream when they went down planet side, but Angus was still young enough to let his excitement outway the impracticality of it. And now, it really did feel like a moment that would be made better with ice cream.

But ...

“Could we stop at the barber’s first?” Angus asked, standing up.  


	7. A Lesson in Timing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leeman Kessler's Rites come at the most inopportune time.  
> Or at the most opportune time, depending on your perspective of the matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still in a Detective Angus mood so have a small flashback :33 Griffin had said that Angus's reasoning for getting into the Bureau was kind of fiddly, since the Voidfish is very, very good as erasing memories without letting people know they're erasing memories, so I decided to take a stab at explaining Angus's quest.  
> I might write more with how this actual case went down, but I like this as it was ^^  
> Takes place directly after Murder on the Rockport Limited, so this is set before basically everything else in this fic :3

Angus was unfailingly polite throughout the every debriefing. Well, he was unfailingly polite throughout every interaction - or, at least, he tried to be. He paid special attention to clients and officers of the militia though; if any of them began to think he wasn’t cut out for the job he had, he might cease to have it. 

Keeping polite through his review of the Rockport Limited case was ... tricky to say the least. Mostly because Angus wasn’t entirely sure how to even  _ explain _ the case.

“And where is this train now?” The cross examiner asked. They had introduced themself as Mx. Jen Liona, even though there really hadn’t been a need to. They were a good friend of Berk’s, and had been one of the detectives to help with Angus’s training. They probably didn’t remember the event, and they probably didn’t remember that Angus already knew some of their facial cues. A lot of other stuff  _ had _ been going on that day.

Angus thought their question over, deciding not to stare. “Probably in some kind of void, Mx.” He explained. “Anything brought into one of the Pleasure Rooms and left over were destroyed when the port was closed. Presumably that’s what happened after the portal on the city gate was closed.”

“After destroying the late Jenkin’s garden?”

Angus couldn’t resist the small smirk as he nodded.

Officer Liona sighed and rolled their eyes. “Well that’s on the city of Rockport then, I suppose.” They shuffled some papers. “Tell me more about the passengers.”

Angus cleared his throat.

After the incident with the train, Angus had more or less limped home. He’d been too excited by how the case had ended to see a proper cleric, but the McDonald Manor’s physician took one look at him and had cast Cure Wounds without second thought. Following that, Angus had all but passed out, sleeping in the room he used when he was staying over.

He hadn’t yet seen his Grandfather - the poor man was on his deathbed and had already been asleep when Angus made it to his house. Chase hadn’t been home either, something about some great uncle’s business. So when Angus woke up and found his Grandfather still sleeping, he decided he should probably go fill out his paperwork for the case.

Mx. Liona was already in, so they had pulled him into their office for the debriefing process. And, after having several hours to thinking it all over, Angus  _ still _ wasn’t entirely sure how properly word everything so it didn’t sound crazy.

“There were five other passengers, bearing myself, and two staff members.” Angus recited. “Jess the Beheader was the only known name on the train, the only person with any kind of fame. I had bought myself a ticket when I came to the conclusion that the Rockport Slayer was guaranteed to be on the train.”

Officer Liona tapped a pencil on the clipboard they were using. They weren’t transcribing everything word for word - instead they had a copy of his written report and were using the pencil to write in the margins. He didn’t plan to deviate much from the written copy - it had been the best shot of explaining everything. 

“What lead to that conclusion?” They asked.

“Leeman Kessler,” Angus explained. “While I was unable to visit the body personally, there was a pocket book found on him. He had a journal entry detailing his train’s departure time. The Rockport militia was still busy wrapping up the murder, so I was employed to follow that lead.”

“But you knew it was the right lead” Officer Liona wasn’t asking.

“Yes, Mx.” Angus said. “I was given a copy of the journal to study. Much of it was lacking in detail, or else just vague, but Mr. Kessler had mentioned storing something aboard the Rockport Limited the day before. According to the journal, he had been late for the last train out, but had convinced the train officials to store his valuables in the crypt safe early. Normally this would be done a few hours before boarding.” Angus nodded. “This told me that the object wasn’t just valuable, but  _ very _ valuable. Mr. Kessler was staying in a hotel, it made sense that he’d want it somewhere more secure than in his room.”

It had also told Angus that Kessler was paranoid. Until he’d met Taako, Magnus, and Merle, he had figured that Kessler simply had a  _ very _ strong preference to keeping his item  _ as _ secure as possible. Now he knew it was because the object was incredibly dangerous and probably not something you wanted to sleep in the same room with.

Officer Liona nodded. “Continue,” They said.

Angus nodded. “Upon boarding, I met with another passenger named Graham, though I later heard he was using an alias and his real name was Percy.”

“Why the alias?” 

“Fun, actually.” Angus smiled a bit. “This is also when I met the attendant Jenkins.” 

“In your initial meeting, nothing seemed off about him?”

Angus shrugged. “Initially? Not really. In hindsight, he was definitely playing up pretending to like his job, way more than someone in his position might’ve normally. At the time, though, I figured it was some kind of joke.”

“And you met with the victim, Hudston?” Officer Liona asked.

Angus shook his head. “Gr- Percy was talking to him when I boarded.”

Officer Liona nodded. Angus hadn’t left out how interested Percy had been in the workings of the train. “And the other three?”

Angus took a breath. “Mr Taako, Merle, and Magnus. They boarded with aliases.”

“One of them was pretending to be the victim.” Officer Liona said with a nod. 

Angus nodded back. “Initially I figured the three of them were working with the killer to collect Mr. Kessler’s valuables at the end of the trip. When I intercepted the message from the Rockport Station, I decided to try talking to them.”

“Why not just contact the authorities in Neverwinter?” Officer Liona asked. “It seemed pretty open and shut.”

Angus shook his head. “I ... the moment I saw them, Mx, I knew none of them were the killer. They were very loud and rude, unafraid of drawing attention. And from what we knew about the other cases we knew the Slayer worked alone. I figured if they were merely there to collect the valuables, then perhaps they could be persuaded to testify against the killer.”

Officer Liona made a face. “Your report did not indicate that these men were all that polite.”

Angus shrugged. “Nice and good are two different things.”

The detective nodded thoughtfully at that. “Once you talked to them you realized there was more going on? You left out a lot of details at this part.”

Angus was ... only sort of prepared for this. His reports were unfailingly detailed, more so than they probably needed to be. He was alway toeing the line between not explaining enough and explaining too much of his thought processes, so he always went with the later just to be safe. What he said about Magnus, Merle, and Taako was so brief it couldn’t  _ not _ be viewed as odd.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could really say. 

“The three of them worked with some group to collect the object Leeman Kessler was transporting.” Angus explained. “They explained to me that it was very dangerous, but also very valuable. Some sort of magical charm prevented them from talking about their work, or the object itself.”

“How do you know they were telling the truth?” Officer Liona asked.

“They slipped up a couple of times, and I heard for myself the masking the magic did to keep them from spilling secrets. It was  _ definitely  _ spellwork.” The static was ridiculously artificial, and the sound of it hadn’t matched the lip movements. And while Angus was normally pretty OK with lip-reading, whenever they said something he couldn’t hear he found it impossible to read it as well. 

“Plus,” He added. “They all had matching bracers. That’s not the kind of detail you use when you’re lying to a kid.”

Officer Liona nodded thoughtfully. “So they worked with Leeman Kessler?” They asked.

Angus opened his mouth, and then closed it in thought.

He hadn’t outright asked the three of them how  _ they _ had known about the object, whatever it had ended up being. Looking back, that had kind of been a poor misstep on his part. Sure, at the time he had other things to think about, but he probably should’ve asked how they had learned about the Rockport Limited.

But the idea that Leeman Kessler had been apart of the same group the three of them had been? That would make a lot of sense. Angus already figured out that the bracers acted as some sort of communication device, and he hadn’t been present during the investigation to know if Kessler had a bracer or not. 

“That is highly possible, Mx.” Angus said. “I’m not certain though.”

Officer Liona paused for a moment to stare at him, likely thinking along the same lines that Berk often did; that it was a cold day in hell when Angus didn’t know something. After a second, though, they merely continued on.

“So, you enlisted their help?” They asked.

“Yes, Mx.”

They hummed, tapping the clipboard again. “Everything else in your report is very straightforward and clear.” They explained. “I mostly required clarification about the involvement of the three ... wild cards we’ll call them.” 

Angus chuckled, “That they certainly were, Officer Liona. Unfortunately there’s not a lot in the report because there’s not a lot I really know for sure.”

Officer Liona just shrugged and sighed. “It happens.” They said. “Not often, sure. But we live in a world where magical studies are only getting more and more advanced. Nothing you can do about this now.”

They then gave him a comforting smile, looking over the report one last time. 

“I do have to ask,” They said. “When you say that the three of them were imperative to your success, how much of that do you actually mean?”

Angus blushed before he could stop himself. It had become something of a habit to make sure those he worked with were credited, to the point where he oftentimes under credited himself. Many of the officers with the Rockport militia were familiar with this habit, and they usually asked any partners he had to clarify what, exactly, Angus had accomplished. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that he did all of his freelance work solo, he probably wouldn’t have a reputation at all.

“Actually, I didn’t over exaggerate much.” Angus said honestly. “Magnus Burnsides was often on the same line of thinking as I was, and I wouldn’t be sitting here today without Taako’s magic. Honestly, all three of them weren’t bad at detective work, and certainly they all had been imperative to taking Jenkins down.”

Officer Liona hummed and then carefully put their clipboard down.

“Well, that’s all for now then.” They said, sticking out a hand to shake. Angus took it almost without second thought. “Now, if you excuse me, I need to get back to my murder investigation.”

“Oh?” Angus couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah. It’s been a good few days but we still haven’t properly closed the L̛҉e҉e͡m̵̨a̵͠n̷҉͜ ̶͞K͘͝e̛̕͠ş̛s̕͞l͡e̛r case.” Officer Liona said with a small sigh. “Bureaucracy and all that jazz. The missing train comes first, after all.” 

Angus stared at them, blinking slowly. 

“Ha! Right,” He said, almost too quickly. Almost giving himself away, his mind whirling so fast he was no longer paying more attention than necessary. 

In that second, he just  _ knew _ .

“Well, at least my case is over.” He joked, trying to cover his slight blunder. Trying to ignore the static that had just come out of Officer Liona’s mouth. Ignore it until he wasn’t in the same room as them.

Mx. Liona laughed, not noticing his misstep at all. “Got that right, Mr. McDonald.” They said “Well, have a good day, OK?”

They were wearing longsleeves. They were  _ always _ wearing long sleeves. But if Angus stared hard enough, he could kind of make out what  _ might _ have been a bracer.

He stood up with a smile and quickly showed himself out.

Taako hadn’t been able to tell when he had stepped too far either, when his words had turned to static. He had to stop, mid-sentence, to ask if Angus could hear the words he was saying. Officer Liona didn’t even realize they had slipped up.

He was opening his shoulder bag before he even got to the sidewalk. 

Like any good detective, he kept copies of his case work. Under normal circumstances, he might’ve just filed his backup away and not looked at it again until he needed to remember something.

Well, he definitely needed to now. He read through his own handwriting, rereading events that just happened. 

He had been on a case. Someone had been murdered, and he was tracking the killer.

Who was the victim again? He had it underlined, highlighted so it’d be easy to find.

L̛҉e҉e͡m̵̨a̵͠n̷҉͜ ̶͞K͘͝e̛̕͠ş̛s̕͞l͡e̛r

He had no idea what it said. 

Angus swallowed, taking a quick breath to steel himself. There was no sense panicking about this, he needed to keep calm so he could think rationally.

_ Memory _ . The spell work was tied to memory. There was no other way Angus could have written something he now couldn’t read. Of course,  _ why _ he now couldn’t read the name was still a very big question. But the answer probably laid in the rest of the report, the  _ other _ parts he couldn’t read.

He had boarded a train, chasing after a killer. Hudston, the engineer, had been murdered. Angus had set out to find who had killed him, with the help of the other passengers, but now he couldn’t remember who the culprit had been.

_ Don’t focus on it _ , He told himself. He skimmed around the words that were clearly  _ there _ and also completely unreadable, focusing on the things he could read.

Magnus, Taako, and Merle. They had said that they worked for some organization, and that they couldn’t - literally couldn’t - share its secrets. People who worked for this organization wore bracers, the bracers completely silver and with a simple rune inscribed on them.

Officer Liona was a member of this organization as well. Considering how much of Angus’s case was now illegible, he had to assume they worked for the militia at the organization’s request. Their job was probably to help cover up sudden gaps in case files like this.

Though there probably wasn’t a whole lot they needed to do. If Angus didn’t focus on the parts of his case he couldn’t read, he had a hard time remembering that anything was wrong with it. It was like his brain was working  _ with _ the effect, making it less obvious to detect. 

He hummed to himself, dodging foot traffic as he made his way back to his Grandfather’s house.

There were two people on this report he couldn’t remember anymore. He had to wonder how many others there were who had just gone missing. Relatives and friends that people just couldn’t focus on any more. 

Well, if he wanted to find out more about the mysterious organization, then the forgotten missing people was probably a good place to start.


	8. Family is More Than Titles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus needs to call a family member to come pick him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who has a new job :333  
> That said, updates on everything is gonna be a bit sporadic. I have a few chapters of this in the works, but everything is kinda on standstill while I adjust to having a schedule again.  
> Still working on these though, and my other Ango fic! Expect updates randomly :3

Angus was crossing his fingers - metaphorically anyways - as the Stone of Far Speech chimed. He wasn’t really a religious person but he was  _ certainly _ praying now, hoping against hope he’d actually reach Taako.

He didn’t have a reason to call the flip wizard these days. The world was saved, and he had recently started school. The two of them had become very busy very quickly. Of course, Angus sent plenty of letters and the two still regularly got to meet up, but calls? Angus wasn’t good about calling people on the best of days, let alone when he didn’t have to.

He needed to now. He gave the librarian another award winning grin as the chims continued. She gave him a continuous, murderous glare. He was itching to just walk away and leave her gasping after him in unfounded anger. But that seemed mean; her annoyance wasn’t ...  _ completely _ misplaced. In her place, Angus would probably be annoyed with himself too.

The chimes suddenly stopped as the call connected. 

“Hello, this is the Taako phone staring Lup, what can I do for ya?” The voice on the other end answered.

Angus suppressed a groan. He’d specifically picked Taako! Well, at this point hesitating would only look suspicious ...

“Heya, uh, Auntie Lup!” Angus said, his voice cracking a little bit. “It’s Angus, I was hoping I could get a favor?”

He turned away from the librarian and curled a bit more around his Stone. He didn’t want his expressions to Lup’s response to make the librarian  _ more _ worried and annoyed.

“Er, heeeeey Ango?” Lup said, probably caught off guard by the “Aunt” comment. “What’s up?” 

Angus took a breath. “OK, so I went over to Neverwinter Regional Library.” Angus explained.

“Mouthful.” Lup commented. Angus ignore it.

“And I was here to get books for school. Only the librarian here won’t  _ believe _ me when I said that I’m legally living on my own.” He shot the librarian in question a mock smile and she just continued to glare at him. “Since I’m downtown, she says she’s not letting me leave without, er, a  _ family member _ coming to pick me up. Or else she’s going to walk me over to the militia office. I would just go there, but I have a test in an hour.”

Angus tried not to feel the sharp sting of annoyance at this whole situation. He had become a legal adult at the age of  _ nine _ . He was eleven now, and  _ now _ was it so much of a problem he couldn’t even walk himself to  _ class _ .

He’d help save the world goddammit! But because he  _ looked young _ ...

Sure, he could kind of see the librarian’s perspective. She just saw a child in a giant library on their own; what were the actual odds that he was telling the truth? He was too distracted to do the proper math, but it’d have a good few zeros after the decimal point, he was sure. 

Didn’t make any of it suck less.

“ _ Oooooh _ !” Lup said slowly as realization dawned. “Shit, OK yeah I can be there soon. Oh damn, is this on speaker?”

“No ma’...er, nah.” Angus said, quickly covering up his blunder.

“Cool cool, ‘cause this librarian sounds like a bitch.” Lup said, her end filling with sounds of shuffling as she moved around. “Just give me the address, little dude, and I’ll be there soon.”

Angus felt beyond relieved, listing off the numbers from his memory. Lup promised she had them written down, then told him not to strangle the librarian before she got there, then the Stone went silent. 

“My aunt is on her way.” Angus said to the librarian, trying to keep his voice from sounding as annoyed at her as he was.

“I heard.” She said, still giving him that dark stare. “You may have a seat on the bench over there.”

She gestured to the bench by the arc that led to the non-fiction section, in easy view of her desk. Whatever. Angus went over and casually popped a squat, waiting for Lup to come relieve him of this silliness.

It just felt so ridiculous! He had been entrusted with five murder cases, twenty missing persons’ cases, and countless robbery cases, but  _ now _ he couldn’t even be trusted to be in a library on his own. He couldn’t even study for his test; the librarian had confiscated his books when he had gone to check out. Her rant about how the subject matter - theoretical arcania - was too complicated for a child had been what led to the questions about his parents and why he was in the library to begin with. He hadn’t had someone so blatantly question his age since his last freelance case, and with  _ those _ the clients had usually been desperate enough to eventually overlook it. 

Angus leaned back on the bench and tried not to feel bored. 

It took an agonizingly long fifteen minutes before Lup swept into the library. But when Lup  _ did _ arrive ... well Angus was kind of regretting not hanging up and calling Magnus.

Lup wasn’t subtle. She was no longer a terrifying lich apparition, but that didn’t mean she didn’t instantly draw attention to herself. Her long hair was braided back and dyed bright pink, matching her high-low skirt and heels. With the skirt she wore a pair of fishnets and a three quarter sleeve crop top, bright white with the words  _ The Hot Twin _ switched on in red. She was wearing at least ten different kinds of bangles on both wrists, no less than five earrings in both ears, and roughly three necklaces of varying lengths. Her purse, also bright pink, bounced off her hip as she walked up to the front desk.

The librarian disapproved of her  _ immediately _ . Angus debated making himself scarce, letting Lup being his distraction so he could sneak out.

Unfortunately that plan fell through before he could really decide if it was worth thinking about. Lup spotted him and waved him over, giving him a pleasant smile.

“Hail and well met and all that bull,” Lup was saying to the librarian when Angus scrambled over to the counter. “I’m here to pick up my nephew here.”

The librarian crossed her arms, clearly trying to find a reason to turn the wizard away. “But you’re an Elf.” She settled on.

Angus could feel Lup’s anger from where he was standing, like she was actually heating up. 

“ _ Excuse me _ ?” Lup asked, in a strongly passive aggressive voice. “Angus here happens to be the son of my sister-in-law. Do we  _ really _ live in such a  _ closed minded _ society than an Elf can’t fall in love with a Human? Really?” 

Angus had to admire her quick thinking, so much he had to wonder if she had rehearsed a story on the way over. He, personally, would have, but he had had to lie to too many people not to have one at the ready at all times. Knowing what he did of Taako and Lup’s past, he wouldn’t be surprised if Lup wasn’t  _ also _ always ready to lie.

The librarian backpedaled quickly. “Of course not,” She said. “I merely was under the assumption Mr. McDonald was calling a  _ blood _ relative.”

Lup raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you dissing my relationship with my sister-in-law? I’ve know Angus since he was born.”

“O-of course not ...” the librarian was sinking quickly. “I just ... I’ll need some proof of identity before I can let him leave.”

Lup tapped a finger on the counter. “Why didn’t you ask for Angus’s ID? You have your detective badge, right boychik?” She addressed to him.

Angus nodded, steeling himself a bit. Talking back to adults had never been a strong suit of his. He drew up his courage.

“She said she didn’t want to see it.” Angus explained honestly. The librarian had her arms crossed.

“Am I really suppose to believe that this eleven year old child is a legal adult?” She demanded.

“Well, yeah, actually.” Lup said, speaking each word very pointedly. “Because it’s true. And if you extended the courtesy to view Angus’s ID, then you’d know that.”

At this, the librarian didn’t have anything to say. Lup gestured to Angus and by some  _ miracle _ he figured out that she wanted him to pull his badge out of his pocket. He carefully placed it on the counter, not quite meeting the librarian's eye.

She scooped up the badge in a hurry, studying it thoroughly. Clearly she was checking to see if it was counterfeit, but the problem was it was completely genuine. It was due to expire later in the year, but until then he was under militia status. 

He didn’t even need the badge to be a legal adult, he had been emancipated during his time as a freelance worker so he could work longer hours. Not long after that he had moved down to Rockport, though living with a few servants hardly meant he lived alone. Still, the point remained. Angus McDonald was a legal adult.

The librarian carefully put the badge back down and slid it to him, her face rather pale.

“I ... I, er...” She stuttered.

“If the next words out of your mouth  _ aren’t _ an apology I’m going to your supervisor.” Lup threatened, right off the bat. 

“I  _ am _ sorry.” She said, insistently. “I ... I’m sorry, I believed a child on his own like Mr. McDonald here meant he was skipping class or running away.”

Lup gave her a pretty good glare, but it lighten up a bit after a moment. “Well, now you know to check to see if the kiddo actually has ID. Now let’s get outta here, Ango, or you’re gonna be late for your test.”

Angus smiled up at the librarian, then quickly followed Lup out of the building.

Lup was waiting for him outside of the building.

“Well that went well enough,” She said, a little lackluster. “Honestly, I love yelling. Especially at people being unfair.” 

Angus smiled softly, his anxiety settling now that the situation was over. “I appreciate it, ma’am.” He said honestly. “Sometimes being a small child doesn’t do me any good.”

Lup chuckled. “Yeah, I bet not.” She said scratching her chin. “Um, well I got nothing else planned for today, so how about I walk ya to class?”

Angus smiled. “Sure thing, ma’am!” He said cheerily.

Lup grinned and the two set off, walking briskly through the streets of Neverwinter. The library was a bit of a distance from the school - it wasn’t the library Angus normally went to, but the Central Library didn’t have the books he had been looking for. He’d have to make the walk back to the Regional Library another day.

For a moment the two just focused on getting through downtown foot traffic. Neverwinter was crowded on the best of days, but this late in the afternoon it was outright packed. It took a little bit of effort not to lose one another; though, to Angus’s benefit, Lup stood out in a crowd. Eventually the crowds dissipated as the two went towards uptown Neverwinter.

“So...” Lup began, almost out of the blue.

Angus looked up at her, but she seemed very unsure of herself, like she was mentally debating on what to say.

“Ma’am?” He prompted.

Lup bit her lip as she looked at him. “You know, little man, you don’t have to call me that.” She said. “‘Ma’am’ I mean. Lup’s fine.”

Angus nodded. “I know that, ma’am! Lucretia tells me the same thing.”

Honestly, the “sirs” and “ma’ams” were more of a habit than anything else. He had gotten stuck in the rut of politeness after his first Governess had gone through manners, and then it was further cemented when he went freelance. Proper terms were a good conversation opener, and a good way of building trust to clients. Calling someone by a proper term meant Angus respected them, and that often helped them open up a bit easier. 

He had only had to modify this habit slightly over the years, and only with non-binary co-workers and clients. He could usually find something of equal politeness - like how Officer Liona liked the title “Mx.”

Dropping the titles and calling someone by just their name sounded ... so  _ rude _ after all these years. Like he was forgetting something, or making a mistake. 

Lup hummed. “Well, OK cool.” She said. “But, uh, you know ...”

Lup hesitated, rubbing the back of her head a bit awkwardly. “You know,” She said again. “If you ever wanted to just ... call me ‘Aunt Lup’ whenever? You know that’s cool with me, right?”

Angus flushed a deep red color. 

This, he was a bit ashamed to admit, had kind of been his entire reasoning behind calling Taako specifically. He knew if he dropped a title like “Uncle” on Magnus or Merle they’d ask him about it later. Lucretia, Carey, and Killian probably wouldn’t ask to talk about it  _ right _ away, but they would’ve  _ eventually _ had this conversation too. Taako would’ve just rolled with it, then forgotten about that finer detail in the wake of getting to yell at the librarian. He would’ve just seen the “Uncle” bit as part of the ruse. 

Angus sighed. “Lup ...” He said slowly, keeping himself from saying ma’am. 

“If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.” Lup covered quickly, looking a bit worried. Angus didn’t talk about his past much at all if he could avoid it - she probably thought she was out of line.

“No, no, it’s OK!” Angus insisted. “It’s just, uh ... I love you all a lot, right?” 

Lup nodded slowly.

“And, like, family is weird?” Angus explained. “Like, you’re born and you get all these people you’re suppose to love and respect from the get-go? And they can be real jerks! But because they’re your mother’s brother or whatever, you’re suppose to look up to them and stuff.”

Lup nodded again. “You don’t have to anymore.” She said, a little sadly.

“No I know that,” Angus insisted. “I don’t really care about that all anymore. I love my new family a lot more, even if they’re all really strange and from other dimensions!”

Lup smiled sweetly at that.

“But the whole ... title thing?” Angus explained, shaking his head. “It doesn’t really ... feel right, you know? Like, if I looked at you and called you ‘aunt’, my mind would instantly leap at the idea of you being related to my parents. Which is ... weird? Weird and kind of wrong, since you’re nothing like my parents.”

Angus huffed, worried he wasn’t explaining this right. “I guess, ma’am, that my point is that aunts and uncles are the ‘supposed to’s. They’re not the ‘actually’s. I love you, and all my family, because I do. Not because I’m suppose to. Does that make sense?”

Lup’s smile got softer the more he talked. “Yeah, yeah I think I get it.” She said with a small nod. She ruffled his hair. 

With that, the two finally arrived at the school.

“Well,” Angus said. “I’ll see you later Mrs. Lup!”

Lup chuckled. “Call me if you need me to beat up any librarians!” She called back.

Angus laughed, then waved and ran inside. 


	9. Some Bonds You Rebuild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world doesn't end, and someone looks for amendment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot I had this chapter done already! More headcanon stuff, mostly with my Ango brother OC guy. I had kinda written him in just so he could act like a snob in that one chapter, and that seemed too mean with how the ending was so I fixed it :3  
> Thank y'all for reading! :D

The world hadn’t ended!

Angus had all but stopped in his tracks when the shadows around him merely ceased, had looked around in nervous anticipation for the next attack. But it hadn’t hit, and when he looked around again he caught sight of the others. Caught sight of Magnus, Taako, Merle, Lucretia, and Davenport, all just ...  _ back _ . Back, and the Hunger gone. The Starblaster was nowhere to be seen, but for once in his life Angus didn’t really want to puzzle out that mystery.

Magnus lifted him up on his shoulders, and Angus cheered.

 

~~

 

The moonbase was still a very good, very well functioning home of operations. While Lucretia had opened a planetside office for the Bureau, the moon still functioned as member housing and offices.

Not many people lived there anymore, though, not full time anyways. The Relics were gone. With them, a lot of Bureau members turned to new projects. Everyone was helping the world rebuild, in various ways, but not everyone stuck with the Bureau to do it.

Angus wanted help. When Lucretia was on base, running around to coordinate relief operations, Angus was at her side. Originally Davenport had been like her secretary, writing down what she was saying with surprising quickness. Now, though ... well. Some of the IPRE members hadn’t forgiven Lucretia. Angus knew it tore at her, but he also knew it didn’t surprise her.

In any case, she did most of her note taking herself these days, but Angus did what he could. He got her tea, fetched her paperwork, ran messages, and just ... tried to be there for her.

She praised him to the heavens, and often. Him and a lot of the others who had stayed, like Avi and Brad, Killian and Carey. Carey, specifically, was shockingly good at taking over leadership where Lucretia couldn't. Between the two of them, rebuilding was going smoothly.

Of course, it helped a lot that people below were putting their own work into it. That, after the near end of the world, everyone had kind of ... banded together. Lucretia’s job mostly just meant recommending specific actions and watching, sometimes dumbfounded, as people went and did them. 

Neverwinter was rebuilt, and Goldcliff and Rockport had their own repairs. Lucretia was considering renaming the Bureau to the Bureau of Benevolence, changing it to a volunteer service program. When she talked about it, talked about designing a instant relief program for natural disasters and the like, her eyes lit up.

About a week after the end of the world, Lucretia took everyone’s bracers off.

Secretly, she had already taken Angus’s off a couple of times. Angus had started his growth spurt in the year he had spent with the Bureau, and the cold silver didn’t grow with him. She had told him about this when she recruited him, insisting he come visit her if he grew any and the bracer had gotten tighter. During his time as a Seeker, Angus had owned three or four bracers.

But now, he didn’t own any.

There was a party the day everyone got their bracers off, but Angus stuck around Lucretia instead. She had to specifically touch each person’s forearm to release the magic for them, so by the time she was done it had grown late. The party was still going, but she had had a  _ long _ day of walking around.

“You should go, Angus.” She tried to tell him. “Have fun, get Lup to teach you new ways to prank Taako.”

Angus had thought it over, but looking at how tired she was? At how much she was working and striving for a better world?

“No thanks, ma’am.” Angus said, smiling brightly. “I was thinking of just heading to the library with some tea.”

Lucretia smiled back, then leaned over and ruffled his hair. “Mind if I join you?” She asked.

Angus’s smile grew wider as he shook his head. He had guessed she would prefer quiet after all of the activity of the day. “No, ma’am!” He said happily, keeping close to her side as the two walked to the Bureau’s library.

 

~~

 

He hadn’t actually meant to be in Neverwinter that day. It had happened on accident - Avi had needed supplies to help Lucas with some crazy invention that was suppose to make rebuilding the library go by quicker. Lucretia had asked him, specifically, to go planetside because Carey and Killian had snuck off and Brad wasn’t someone you sent shopping. 

Well, maybe there was someone else Lucretia could’ve sent. It seemed like she was trying to get him to go off on his own more and more, trying to get him to do things independently. It hadn’t escaped Angus’s notice that she was asking a bit more about his family that she had been before.

In any case, Angus had gone out shopping and had planned to just drop off the parts before calling a ride back to the moonbase (which was done with a simple pocket charm, now that the bracers were gone). That plan had deviated when Avi roped him into the rebuilding effort by asking him to help check over his math.

“Truth is, Angus,” Avi had said, almost solmenly. “I’ve been staring at these documents too long. I’mma fuck up if I keep at it, make a stupid mistake in the simple math and then screw everything over.”

So Avi showed him the formulas, showed him how to read the blueprints, and Angus sat down at the field table and went through all of it, writing out his own equations on a spare piece of paper.

And that was where he was when someone, with a very questioning tone, called his name.

“One second!” Angus called back, finishing up through the formula. “It looks like you’re good Avi, nothing seems off ...”

Angus looked up and realized he wasn’t talking to Avi at all. He was talking to Chase McDonald.

“Oh.” Angus said, caught completely off guard. Chase didn’t look much more relaxed than he was feeling, shifting his weight from one foot to another and not quite meeting his eye. But he also didn’t look ... uncertain. It looked more like he had something he wanted to say, and less that this was an awkward happenstance.

In any case, if Chase had just been walking by and seen Angus, Angus wouldn’t have seen  _ him _ . He could have just walked on by, and Angus would’ve been too caught up in the math to notice. Chase was intentionally trying to talk to him. For the first time in ... honestly, Angus couldn’t remember the last time the two had just  _ talked _ to each other.

“Er, afternoon.” Angus tried, standing up.

“Hello.” Chase said, pretty pointedly. “Um. Maybe we could. Talk? In private. If you ... uh if you can?”

Angus nodded slowly, turning over to where he’d last seen Avi. He couldn’t find the engineer, but he left a message with one of the other works, then followed his older brother away from the library and towards the park. 

“Um, so ... uh.” Chase began, sounding almost unnaturally unsure of himself. “How have you been?”

“Er, busy. Busy but good.” Angus said, looking his brother up and down. “How about you?”

Chase looked about the same as always. Maybe a little less ... tall, maybe a little bit closer to Angus in height than he remembered. But, altogether, he had the same kind of clothing, the same kind of style for his hair, and the same kind of shoes. Well, he  _ had _ added a new accessory, that being an almost professor styled shoulder bag, but Angus didn’t really think too much of it.

“It’s been well.” Chase said. “Also busy, but who have you seen lately that hasn’t been working hard after the apocalypse?” 

Angus smiled and nodded. Neverwinter was called  _ The City of Skilled Hands _ and it showed; even throughout the rebuilding effort no one was doing  _ anything _ halfway. The rebuilt city was only going to be grander than the original. 

“What all have you been up to?” Angus asked, settling into a park bench. Chase seemed to be a bit unsure about sitting down - or maybe just sitting with his brother - but after a beat he sat down too. 

“Bureaucratic work, mostly.” He explained. “The McDonald family is sponsoring rebuilding efforts in a lot of places, but there still needs to be someone budgeting resources and making sure no one ends up with too much to spend and too little. Though it’s gotten a lot easier, since people work a lot better together nowadays.”

Chase sighed, almost in affection. He had always been the strong leader, the kind who wanted to lead people towards betterment. Upon becoming head of the house, the McDonald clan had a lot more involvement with the charities around the country. He was distant and cold, but Angus never considered his brother a bad person.

And now, in the aftermath of everything, he didn’t even seem all that cold. 

“What have you been up to?” Chase asked. “Do you work with the Bureau woman?”

“Lucretia?” Angus offered. “Yeah, yeah she’s great.”

Chase smiled slightly, nodding. “Her story is amazing. Well, all seven of them. But the work she does now inspires me the most.” He continued to smile at the thought, but then slowly dropped it as he looked Angus over.

“Angus,” He asked, fidgeting a bit with his bag’s strap. “Did you ... have you always been working under her? After selling the manor?”

Angus nodded. “Yes I have been. Originally Fisher made it impossible for me to talk about my work, so ... sorry for lying a bit there? I wasn’t sure I’d be able to tell you I work on the moon.”

Chase chuckled. “Yeah when I found out about _ that _ ...” He laughed a bit harder, but after a moment he calmed back down into a serious expression.

“You don’t need to apologise, Angus.” Chase said after a moment. “Really,  _ I _ should be.”

Angus furrowed his brow. “What for?”

Chase rolled his eyes. “For, uh, a lot? For not believing you when you said you worked as a detective, for not realizing you had sold the Rockport Manor and  _ moved _ till months afterwards, for moving in with Grandfather and trying to get you to go to private school?” Chase laughed a bit darkly. “For being a shitty brother?”

Angus put a hand on his brothers, looking at him seriously.

“Chase,” He said. “It’s OK. I forgive you for that. And I forgive Grandfather too. I love both of you, you know that right?”

Chase sighed and nodded. “You’ve always been a good kid, you know that right?”

Angus smiled. “And a good detective!”

Chase had to smile at that. “I betcha you are.” He said. “I’ll have to get all your stories, huh?”

Angus continued smiling. “You got some free time?”

He nodded. “Yeah,” He said. “I’m not keeping  _ you _ , am I?”

Angus almost laughed at the question; he had never thought he’d see the day where his brother would ask if he any actual responsibilities to attend to. 

“Nah, I’m good.” Angus insisted. “I was just helping Avi with his math, but he doesn’t really need me. He’s just going crazy staring at the numbers.”

“Avi?” Chase asked.

So, instead of telling his brother about his past cases, Angus told him about the people he’s come to love and respect on the moonbase. People like Carey, Killian, Noelle, Johann, Leon, Avi ... all of them. Everyone. Everyone Angus could think of, and Angus had gotten to know basically everyone who worked on the moonbase. He told stories and jokes, trying to share every inch of his life with the Bureau.

Chase almost never interrupted, but he listened with rapt attention.

“So,” He said, when Angus wound down. “Are you going to continue working there?”

Angus fidgeted. “Well, Madam Lucretia is trying to change the Bureau into something new for the future, and she’s working very hard with the rebuilding effort.” Angus explained. “And I like helping her! I like helping all of them, and being useful ...”

Chase gave him a knowing look.

“But?” He asked, not the least bit condescendingly either. 

Angus stifled a laugh. “Is it weird that  _ now _ I want to go to school?”

Chase sat up a bit straighter and blinked rapidly. He was probably remembering every argument the two had ever had about school, from way back when Angus was five and “ready” for primary school. Angus had put an end to it when he was eight and had moved to the Rockport Manor, but he had seriously doubted Chase had ever forgiven him.

“Nah, it’s not weird.” Chase decided. “You’ve always looked for knowledge, even when you didn’t do it conventionally. Honestly what was weird was me thinking you’d be happy going to primary school, like you didn’t already know all that stuff.”

Angus chuckled. “Yeah.” He said.

“Hey,” Chase said, putting an arm on Angus’s shoulder. “Wherever you go, whatever you end up doing? I ... I’m here for you, you know? Like, if you need any money or a place to stay or, or, just ... like a person to talk to? I ...”

Angus leaned forward and hugged his brother, cutting off his chatter. After a second, Chase hugged him back.


	10. Scary Carey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus McDonald doesn't handle grief well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by a sudden rush of Emotions (tm) for my good, good detective. This turned out angstier than planned, but fuck man I feel like its worth it.  
> I have two other chapters for this in the works as well, but I'm not gonna make any promises on when they'll be out because I know better. Soon, though, hopefully :33
> 
> EDIT: So I labeled this as the last chapter because I'm working on a lot of other things, and some of the headcanon stuff I did for this isn't stuff I subscribe to anymore. I might write something else for this later, but considering this is just a buncha one-shots in a document, I figured I could just label it as completed and add more later if I want ^^  
> Thank you all so much for reading!! :D

When you’re a detective with Angus’s skill and credibility, you don’t have to struggle to find work. Honestly, part of joining the Bureau had meant finding ways to turn jobs  _ down _ , since he didn’t have much free time to solve cases. The fact that he no longer had an address helped, but he still got calls from the militia of Neverwinter and Rockport to see if he could  _ kindly _ come in to help a case.

But while Angus had always had official badges with both militias, he had made it clear from the get-go that he was a  _ freelance _ detective. He took only the jobs  _ he _ was interested in - the badges he had received had been entirely so other militia members would know to listen to him (though he had,  _ only once _ , played off a badge as an official one in order to go someplace he shouldn’t have been allowed, but it worked out OK in the end). Therefore, he always had grounds for politely declining a job.

“You know what?” He had said, this night, instead. “I’ll take it. I can be at the precinct in about an hour.” 

Officer Olivia chuckled a bit, clearly surprised. “You’ve gone pretty silent on us, kid. Was starting to think you’d done the smart thing and stopped detective work.” 

“No ma’am,” Angus said, throwing a couple of items onto his bed to get packed. “I just, uh, I’ve been pretty busy.”

“Well, hopefully this’ll be a quick one. See ya soon, Mr. McDonald.”

The line went dead, and Angus pocketed the Stone.

There are certain skills one learns when becoming a detective that don’t really “turn off.” As safe as Angus felt in the Bureau, nothing could stop him from analyzing the movements of the Bureau members’ movements. He knew every route in the place now, and, most importantly, every path out.

There were a lot of easy ways off the moon, for example. Angus even had Feather Fall down pat, he could just open his window and jump. The problem with that, though, was that his presence would eventually be missed. He didn’t need people to panic and possible ruin the case he was about to take, even if he wished he didn’t have to handle his co-worker’s pity towards him. So he was going to have to do this the hard way. 

Angus shouldered his backpack, which contained probably not enough of the things he was going to need. He couldn’t exactly get away with his ruse if he packed a duffle bag, though, so he’d have to make do with the backpack. Not like he couldn’t  _ buy _ supplies if the case took long enough anyways. He certainly now had  _ way _ more money than he knew what to do with.

He took a deep breath and finally, for the first time after several days, faced the mirror. He was pale, which was out of place and wouldn’t do at all. He pinched his cheeks, trying to get the blood flowing to get the color back, but he knew it was a lost cause. Whatever. People around here probably wouldn’t expect him to look his best anyways.

Running along that train of thought, he untied his tie and left it behind. Playing the “sad kid” role was one he got very, very good at as a freelance detective. It’d come in handy now.

Angus clicked off his Bureau dorm’s light and carefully closed and locked the door. Then he was off, down a well trodden path to the hanger.

Avi was working the midnight shift, which, frankly, was a stroke of luck. Angus realized he didn’t know what he would’ve done if Avi had been taking a rare break, and told himself to get his mind on track. 

Whatever, Avi  _ was _ here. His plan still applied.

“Oh, hey Angus!” Avi said, shocked. It had been a long while since Angus had been in the hangar, after all. 

“Afternoon, Avi.” Angus says it politely, but with a bit less life than normal. He was probably overplaying the Sad Kid card, but Avi seems to fall for it.

“What brings you down here?” Avi asks.

“I, er, well ...” Angus says, faking bashfulness. “I, um, I was kind of hoping I could get a canon ride down to Neverwinter?”

Avi makes a face like he's about to refuse, but Angus talks over him.

“I just ... I have a new lead on a Relic, but we don’t have the copy of the book here, and, and, and I could _ really  _ do with the distraction.” Angus bats his eyelashes at the engineer. 

Avi finally broke, which was good because Angus didn’t have another excuse under his belt. He made a sad face at the kid, then sighed.

“Are you  _ sure _ I can’t call someone to come with you?” He asked, nervous.

“Last time Killian came with me she fell asleep and got us kicked out of the library.” Angus explained. 

Avi gave a halfhearted chuckle. “Alright my man. When do you think you’ll be back?”

How long did he think he could solve a case he knew nothing about? He probably should’ve asked Officer Olivia details over his Stone.

“I’m not sure? Maybe three days?” He explained. “I don’t want to have to check books out, you know? I’ll never be able to get them back down there.” 

Avi looked even  _ more _ unsure now. “Kid ...” He said slowly.

“I know,” He said, like he was trying to keep his voice even. “I just ... I think I need a break, you know? It’s not like I don’t have a place to stay in Neverwinter.” 

Avi’s eyes softened. Angus  _ hated _ deceiving him, but, well,  _ technically _ it wasn’t complete bullshit? He honestly did feel he needed a break. He just knew Avi wouldn’t approve of him taking a, er, working break by picking up a case. 

Avi slowly sighed. “OK, sure kiddo. You told Madame Director where you were going?”

_ Fuck _ , Angus thought. There was no good answer to this question. 

Angus gave Avi a sheepish smile. When there was no good answer, it was better to just be truthful. At least  _ then _ he wouldn’t get caught in a lie.

“ _ Angus _ ,” Avi said slowly.

“I’m sure she wont mind!” Angus insisted. “They just came back with the Temporal Chalice, it’s not like the other Seekers  _ aren’t _ taking a break. Besides, I’m not going somewhere completely foreign to me. I’m just going home.”

Avi made a face at that. Angus hated lying to the man.

“Al...al _ right _ .” Avi finally relented. “But if she asks, I’m not lying to her.”

“That’s  _ all _ I could ask! Thank you, thank you!” Angus said, genuinely happily. He bounced a little in place, watching avidly as Avi typed in the coordinates.

If push came to absolute shove, Angus could send a pod on its own. It was doable, though highly unadvised as it basically meant rigging the normal process to a count-down timer. Better that Avi was here, and that Angus didn’t have to go jumping off the moon and rely on spellwork. 

Avi gestured to the pod in the bay. “It’s ready to load up kid. Want some gum?”

Maybe it would’ve been better if he just jumped out the window. 

Angus managed to shake his head. “I’ll be fine, it’s a quick shot.”

When Angus was nine years old, he took a case involving a robbery. There was no easy way to tell how the robber was not only getting  _ in _ the vault, but also getting  _ out _ with the things he took. Angus’s client was a stubborn person, going over the same vault a couple dozen times and trying to fortify it, rather than maybe moving to a different one, so the culprit knew the layout of the vault very well. These two facts in the case meant Angus had very little wiggle room. 

He had been the one to come up with the stake-out plan. The client had a large sarcophagus in the vault. Angus had managed to convince the client to replace it was a fake one, one built with a screen in it so someone  _ inside _ the coffin could see out.

Angus’s plan was to be, essentially, locked inside the coffin for the night and watch over the vault.

He was in the coffin longer than a night. Turns out the wizard robber figured out how to transport bigger stuff through his spellwork, so as a big middle finger to Angus’s client he had taken the biggest item in the room. Which happened to have a boy detective hidden inside.

It worked out in the end. Angus had managed to pop the sarcophagus open after a couple of hours playing with the hinges, wiggling a pen knife through the gap and prying the lid off bit by bit. He had managed to finally break out nearly twenty four hours after getting locked in by the militia detective on the case, and once free he managed to call for backup and catch the crook.

A nearly overly fantastic story, one of Angus’s most exciting cases even. He just ... doesn’t care much for tight spaces anymore.

Avi was the only one on the moon who knew of his discomfort (He absolutely refused to call it a phobia, because it  _ wasn’t _ yet. If he refused to let it bother him, there was hope it wouldn’t get that far.) and that was only because Angus had been too noticeably unnerved coming out of the sphere that had first landed him on the moon. Avi didn’t know the full story behind it, he hadn’t even really asked; maybe he assumed it was just something Angus was born with. In any case, when Angus had asked him nicely not to say anything, Avi hadn’t. He offered all kinds of relief items, though, whenever Angus had to take a canon somewhere. Gum, fidget beads, one of Johann’s mix-tapes, whatever Avi thought might help. Angus tried to explain that the biggest help he gave him was that he always counted down before firing the sphere. Once Angus was clear of the canon itself, his fear was manageable as the sphere itself was all glass. He could just pretend he was flying.

“If you’re sure,” Avi said slowly, like he wasn’t sure if he believed Angus would be fine. He walked over to the sphere and opened the door for Angus.

“Thank you again, sir!” Angus said, honestly.

“Don’t thank me yet.” Avi said. “For all I know Madame Director will send Killian or Carey after ya, and then you’ll probably be super grounded.”

Angus resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead tried for a light chuckle. He could lose Killian pretty easily in the city, she always had to rely on Seeker intel to get to her target. Which was fair - her job wasn’t to  _ find _ people, it was to stop them when she was needed to. Carey was a little bit of a different story, but there was serious hope that the Director wouldn’t send anyone after him at all if she thought he was just grieving. Angus probably wouldn’t have to worry at all.

He climbed aboard the sphere and carefully closed his eyes when it was loaded into the canon. He tried to pretend his heart wasn’t going a billion beats a second as Avi counted him down, and then he tried to pretend he was still fine as the sphere traveled across the sky towards his home town.

* * *

 

Officer Olivia looked up from her desk when Angus walked in.

“Go home, Mr. McDonald.” She said, without missing a beat.

“Nice to see you too, ma’am?” He asked, genuinely surprised.

Officer Olivia was on the older side of thirty, with a pair of reading glasses she was constantly losing and ever graying hair. She had been taken out of the field about five years ago due to a leg injury, and since then had become a very good clerk for the militia. 

She was one of the few people of Neverwinter who hadn’t batted an eyelash when he had introduced himself as a detective. She was often worried he was taking cases too extreme for his age, but she never once discredited his ability.

She seemed to be now, as she picked her reading glass off her face to better stare at him.

“You can’t take this case.” She said plainly. “I feel you’re emotionally compromised.”

Angus surprised a groan, but felt his shoulders slump anyways.

“Ma’am, I ...” he began.

Officier Olivia shook her head. “I lost my guardian when I was twenty two and it royally screwed me over, I do not want to imagine the hell you're going through.”

Angus hadn’t wanted to have this conversation with anyone on the moon, he  _ certainly _ didn’t want to have it here. He didn’t really want to have it ever, thank you very much. 

“I ...” Angus began. “Look ma’am, I knew my Grandpa was dying long before he passed, so I’ve  _ had _ a lot of time to think about it ...”

Officer Olivia raised an eyebrow. 

“I have other family, friends even, who look after me.” Angus explained. “I don’t ... my Grandpa might’ve been my guardian but him passing isn’t ...”

He made a frustrated noise. “I’m fine to take a case, ma’am.” He said, plainly. “I need something ...  _ normal _ , something I’m good at. I promise my Grandpa’s passing isn’t going to make me reckless.”

Angus McDonald had a lot of complicated emotions surrounding his grandfather. He had a lot of complicated emotions about all of his bio-family, actually, but since he was raised by his Grandpa he had the most about that man.

This was the same man who taught him how to read, who told him to always strive for knowledge, who allowed Angus to be a detective so long as he stayed safe. This was also the man who refused to speak to him for three weeks when Angus explained that he wasn’t a girl, who had told him that he couldn’t be expected to be taken seriously if he continued to play “dress up.” If it hadn’t been for Chase, Angus would’ve believed his Grandpa saying he was sick in the head and actually a girl. 

Angus hated his grandfather, but loved him dearly. Mourning him felt wrong, but when he tried to pretend he didn’t care that  _ also _ felt wrong. Nothing about his feelings for his grandfather made sense, and he hated people saying they were sorry for him because he wasn’t sure if he was sorry for  _ himself _ yet. It was hard to accept condolences when you weren’t sure you were grieving.

Officer Olivia sighed, slowly.

“Angus,” she said, the rare use of his first name drawing his attention. “I ... I don’t  _ not _ believe you, you get me? But I think you’re still in shock from it, and I don’t want you to push yourself ...”

Angus shook his head. “I’m ready, ma’am. I’ve got a good support group back home.”

Technically it wasn’t a lie. She just didn’t need to know that he hadn’t exactly been talking to anyone about his feelings lately.

The militia officer sighed again, though this time it was more of a huff. “Fine.” She said. “But you're going to stick  _ close _ to Miles this time. No running off on your own.”

Angus nodded surely. “Understood, ma’am.”

Officer Olivia gestured to her free chair, then began to brief him on the case.

* * *

The case took two of Angus’s precious three days, but as much as he tried to wrap things up quickly, he also didn’t want his time on the surface to end. Not thinking about the Bureau was a nice change, and not thinking about his Grandpa was an  _ especially _ nice change.

He stuck close with Officer Miles, like Officer Olivia had requested, and avoided Officer Liona like they were the plague. Luckily there were only a few chances of the two running into each other, and Angus was careful each time. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mx. Liona would contact the Director without hesitation; Angus in the militia offices without another Seeker meant trouble. 

It ended up working out, solving the case with Officer Miles. He was a bit like Leon in a lot of ways, with that calm and steady voice when explaining things, but he had a similar dry humor to Avi. With the robbery case as intense as the one they were working with, that was the kind of humor Angus most appreciated. 

Angus ended up staying the night at a hotel, leaving his mother’s last name at check-in instead of “McDonald”. Just to be on the safe side.

At the end of the case, Miles and Angus had cornered the crook when Angus discovered he was an insomniac and planned his heists while wandering the various bars of Neverwinter after midnight. The thief had managed to duck out of the bar when the two went to apprehend him, but Angus caught sight and had given chase.

He didn’t realize, until about a block later, that Miles had gotten left behind. He pulled out his Stone of Farspeech, trying to reach the other officer while keeping sight of the robber, and turned down the wrong road. Well, the right road, but not the road he should’ve taken on his own, clearly.

Turns out the crook had backup. Well, no, Angus  _ knew _ the robber had had backup, there had been plenty of evidence of that. What Angus hadn’t anticipated was that said backup would be available at two in the morning.

“This who’s giving you trouble?” The other man demanded, calling over his shoulder to the thief. He was a serious mass of muscles, clearly the person who had done the real heavy lifting in the heists. He could probably win a fist fight with Magnus, even. “A little  _ kid _ ?”

Angus turned on his heels and started running the other way. World’s Greatest Detective or not, he wasn’t cut out for a standup fight even against an  _ ordinary _ fighter. He needed to get a bit of distance, maybe fire off a crossbow bolt or ...

Or just get caught. The big guy just yanked him up by his shirt collar and held him a good two feet in the air, seemingly not the least bit perturbed by Angus’s escape attempt. 

Angus, to his credit, managed not to whimper or anything. He quickly twisted his wrist, his crossbow leaping into his hand. He fired, the shot  _ barely _ missing the big guy as he twisted his arm out of the way. The big guy then clamped a hand over Angus’s weapon, seizing it easily from the boy’s grasp.

_ Fuck fuck fuck _ , Angus’s mind chanted, almost unprompted. He blamed the Reclaimers. He used to rarely swear.

“Kid, you done fucked up, huh?” The big guy said, staring him in the face. Angus took in every detail instinctively, from the crooked teeth (this man once had his jaw dislocated, then had tried to pop the joint back in on his own, given the state of how poorly it went), to the slightly crooked nose (he took a lot of hits to the face, but unlike Angus he probably wore the broken nose like a badge), to the burnt off eyebrows (running head long at a wizard wasn’t smart, but it spoke a lot about how confident the dude was in his own abilities). He learned more about this man than he really wanted to know, and what he saw he didn’t like.

He didn’t think he could talk his way out of this one, but he was going to have to try.

He got only as far as opening his mouth, though. Dangling from the big guy’s grip, with one hand holding onto his attackers arm in a desperate attempt to keep his collar from digging into his throat, a loud voice shouted something.

There was a sudden streak of blue flying at the big guy, knocking him back and making him drop the boy detective. Angus only barely managed to keep his feeting, looking up in near shock as a  _ very _ familiar Dragonborn girl jumping nimbly back down to the ground, unsheathing her daggers. The big guy looked absolutely  _ pissed _ , and it seemed to clue Carey in that she needed to finish him off quickly.

With a practiced motion, Carey opened her mouth and pure blue lightning shot out, striking the thief square in the chest. He spasmed, but without any kind of armor to buffer the blow it went almost through him, and he was knocked over. Carey was on him instantly, rope appearing from seemingly nowhere. In no time quick, she had the culprit fully trussed up. 

Angus took the time to breathe. Hands on his knees and everything, making himself breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Carey turned from her catch and positively  _ glared _ at Angus. She was so mad it actually shocked him. His mind, still stuck into the mode of the chase, wanted him to run. 

But part of him, the part that speak hours learning how to creep from shadow to shadow with the blue scaled rogue, saw the fear in her eyes too.

“Don’t you fucking  _ ever _ ...” She began. Angus was saved by the bell - his Stone of Farspeech chirped and he was quick to take the call.

It was Miles. He hadn’t seen where the chase had lead, but it turns out the thief they’d  _ originally _ been after had run back to the main road. Both culprits were caught.

Angus continued to breathe, making himself untense. Not relax, but definitely untense.

“We’re off the main road, in an alley.” Angus explained.

“We?” Miles asked.

“One of my ... guardians showed up.” He said, not looking up to Carey’s glare. “I think I’m probably grounded.”

Miles laughed dryly on the other end, then promised to send backup to them. Angus finished the call, then finally looked back at the Regulator. 

Oh yeah, he was  _ so _ grounded.

“I’m like five seconds from going Scary Carey on  _ your _ sorry butt too, kid.” Carey threatened, off the bat. She stomped over to him, managing to look big and imposing with only a couple inches of height difference. “What on  _ earth _ were you thinking?!”

Angus managed a small smile and a shrug. “That I caught the bad guy?” He offered shyly.

The world spun as Carey picked him up, tucking him under her right arm. 

“We’re leaving.” She said darkly.

“Wait!” Angus said, squirming. “No, wait Carey I gotta fill out a report and stuff! Ma’am? Come on at  _ least _ wait for the backup to show! We can’t just leave ...”

“I certainly  _ can _ ‘just leave’” She said, coldly. “I can and I am. We’re going home.”

Angus, for a brief second, stopped to hear her say that. Going home. She was here to take him  _ home _ . 

He felt tears build up in his eyes. He used to have a big, big home in Rockport. Carey had never seen it, because he had sold it when he took the Seeker job. He technically had a home in the McDonald Manor in the very city they were in, but he knew she didn’t mean that place.

She meant the moon. With his family.

He shook himself out of the thought quickly enough. He could analyze his feelings about his amazing co-workers later.

“If I just vanish the militia might panic!” He tried. “Carey, we don’t have to stick around  _ long _ ! Just until they can confirm I haven’t been kidnapped or anything!”

Carey finally stopped. She huffed, then set him back down on the ground. Despite how mad she was with him, he noticed with a start that she was absolutely gentle with him. 

“Fine.” She said, smoke curling from her nostrils. Only Dragonborn could make actual, Gods honest smoke come pouring out of their face when they got mad. The effect was intimidating. Angus was very intimidated.

Which is probably why he kept close to her, knowing full way there was going to be music to face on this. The too stood outside the alley with their trussed up thief, waiting for the militia wagons to arrive. 

Carey leaned against the wall, crossing her arms and glaring at seemingly nothing. Angus, honestly, didn’t really know what to do. He should talk to her, right? Like, apologize or something? She was certainly mad because he had been in danger, and had been the one to put himself in harm's way, but he didn’t know how to apologize for that. Mainly because he wasn’t sorry. 

“How...” Angus began instead. “How did you find me?”

Carey stared at him. “Madame Director is awake in her office right now, tracking your bracer and ready to call me with updates.”

Angus flinced. If Lucretia was involved, there was no way there  _ wasn’t _ going to be consequences. The deathly silence filled the air again, Carey fidgeting with impatience. 

“Thanks for saving me,” Angus said. He almost blurted it out, in fact, unprompted. He sincerely  _ was _ thankful, but now was probably not the time to express that.

“What possessed you,” Carey said. “To take a case without backup? Without letting us  _ know _ ? To just  _ lie _ to Avi like that?!”

Angus flinched again, rubbing his upper arm. He deserved all her scorn and more, but ... he still wasn’t sorry.

“I  _ had _ backup!” He insisted. “Miles is a good guy, you’d like him! It wasn’t like the militia was sending me in on my lonesome, good luck you eleven year old kid against a violent crook!”

“Not an excuse.” Carey shot back. “You should’ve had one of  _ us _ with you!”

Angus felt his own anger rise. “I used to do  _ this _ all the time before I  _ met _ any of you, ma’am!” He was almost shouting. “I happen to  _ trust _ the militia, Miss. Carey! I wasn’t being reckless! That wasn’t even the worse situation I’ve ever been in!”

Carey stood straight, but seemed to think better of whatever she was about to say. She took a couple of deep breaths, calming herself down. When she finally spoke, her voice was much quieter than before.

“Kid,” She said, slowly. “You know we all love you, right?”

Angus froze a bit, about to ask her what that had to do with anything, when the wagon appeared around the corner and raced towards them.

Wrapping up a case meant answering a lot of questions. Since Carey was still in plain sight, she got pulled into it too. Angus was familiar with the process, and began explaining things as quickly as he could. What had happened, who Carey was, where the bad guy was. The militia members hauled the big guy into the wagon proper while the talks were happening.

The whole time, Angus kept repeating Carey’s words in his head.

_ You know we all love you, right? _

He didn’t get it. He  _ did _ know they loved him, or ... well he had sort of figured he had just been projecting his family issues onto his co-workers and  _ hoping _ they loved him too. He had had some confirmation before, but this was one of the first times it had been said so seriously. They were family, they  _ did _ love him. 

And ...

And he had snuck out. Conned Avi into letting him go planetside by telling a big fat lie and using the death of his grandfather as means of gaining sympathy. Even though he wasn’t yet gone longer than planned, clearly someone had panicked.

He ... he had made his family panic.

Suddenly, Angus felt like a bonafide asshole. Especially because Carey was completely right.

He should’ve just ...  _ told someone _ . Why did he think lying was the better solution? Why had he thought his family would ban him from solving a case? Why had he thought he had to do everything alone?

Carey didn’t think he couldn’t handle the case on his own. Carey had panicked because she wouldn’t  _ know _ if it went wrong until was too late, because Angus had dropped contact. No wonder she was mad. She was  _ scared _ . Terrified that she might have actually  _ lost _ him.

By the time the questioning was all done, Angus was worn out, physically but mostly emotionally. Miles had come around to their location by then, dragging the thief with him, and Angus made sure to tell the cop to let Officer Olivia know he had gone home. He explained he’d be willing to file a debriefing report over his Stone of Farspeech, but was probably rightfully going to be confined to his room for maybe ever. Miles rubbed his hair and told him not to die of boredom.

Following that, he wordlessly walked over to Carey.

The Dragonborn didn’t look so ... Scary Carey - as she called it - anymore. She just looked tired. She crossed her arms as he got close, but her heart didn’t seem into it.

“‘M sorry,” Angus said, before she could say anything. “I ... I thought about it a bit and ... uh, I’m sorry I worried everyone.”

Carey’s expression softened. She sighed, dropping her arms entirely. “I’m sorry I yelled,” She said, the exhaustion thick in her voice. “I just ... I love you kiddo, you know? I literally don’t know what I do with myself if you got hurt and I had no way of even  _ trying _ to help ya, you know? We  _ all _ feel that way.”

Angus hung his head and didn’t say anything. He had deserved to get yelled at, honestly. 

“And, for the record.” Carey continued. “I’m sorry for implying that I think you can’t handle yourself, or that the militia is untrustworthy. Let’s just ... let’s go home, OK? We have a worried boss and an even more worried engineer to console.” 

Carey reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. When Angus’s eyes met hers, she was smiling again. He felt like crying.

“It’s OK, Ango.” She said, rubbing his shoulder. “It is now, anyways.”

That also almost threw him off, but he managed to understand her anyways. She wasn’t mad  _ at _ him anymore. She probably hadn’t been at all to begin with, she had been more mad about the actions he had taken. But she was right, it was OK now. He was OK, she was OK, and he understood what he had done wrong.

Angus slowly nodded, then took her hand as the two began to walk out of Neverwinter, heading towards a quiet place where they could summon a glass sphere.

* * *

 

Angus wasn’t grounded,  _ per se _ . He had had a lot of explaining to do to Madame Director, but Carey had backed him up and explained that he knew where he had gone wrong. Lucretia looked pleased enough to hear that, saying she hoped this would be a lesson for the future.

He also had to apologize a lot to Avi, which was almost heartbreaking. Clearly the engineer had been beating himself up for letting Angus sneak out. Angus decided not to mention that if he  _ hadn’t _ been able to trick Avi, he would’ve still be able to just jump from the moon with Feather Fall. He didn’t think that fact would help any.

It turned out that Lucretia had been asking for him, and that was what led Avi to spill the beans. She had seen through his ruse within seconds, getting Carey to go planetside in no time flat. Officer Liona had also been informed, and had actually be actively looking for him within the militia buildings. When they found out that, despite not seeing him, Angus had  _ definitely _ been through, they told the Director.

Angus checking into the hotel using his mother’s maiden name had probably been the only reason they hadn’t found him sooner, as Carey had tried to explain to an unhelpful front desk person that  _ yes _ Angus McDonald  _ was _ staying at his hotel. It was probably sheer lucky timing that Angus had managed to exit the building without seeing her - probably doing so during the time after Carey had been escorted off the hotel property and right before she broke back in. 

And then, of course, the tracking magic in the bracers wasn’t so great when the target was in motion. And Angus had been moving a  _ lot _ during his investigation. 

For a good many hours, Lucretia, Liona, Avi, and Carey had been nothing but tense as they tried to track him down, all but full of panic. When Carey found him, caught by a guy beefier than Magnus, it had been basically a nightmare scenario.

So while Angus wasn’t  _ outright _ grounded, there had to be a lot of talking. He was sat down and told he needed to talk it out, Carey giving him a look that told him he could refuse, but she’d just keep asking every so often until he relented. 

So Angus talked, over the course of a couple of sit downs with Carey. 

He only began to real feel honest closure for his grandfather afterwards. His new family loved him so much, and they were there for him and his confused feelings the person who raised him. Carey never judged, even went as far as saying it was understandable that his feelings were muddled. 

Family, for the first time, felt a bit more real to Angus. It felt a bit more like someone on his side, and not just someone to love and hope for love in return. That difference all but changed the definition of “family” for Angus, but it was a change he was very, very happy to see. 


End file.
